Dinner meeting
by dampyria
Summary: After a hard day at work JD meets an interesting guy in his favorite dinner.
1. Dinner meeting

**DINNER MEETINGS**

Author: Dampyria

Fandom: M7 / BtVS crossover

Summary: After a hard day at work JD meets an interesting guy in his favorite dinner.

Rating: PG13

Paring: JD/Xander (pre-slash)

Spoilers: BtVS (Post season 7 – Pre Comics season 8), M7 (none) - ATF universe

Disclaimer**: **I do not own Magnificent Seven or Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

This is the first fic that I have written in English, so be kind to me. I am well aware that I need a beta, but unfortunately I haven't found one yet. So if you are a gentle soul with a little time on your hands and nothing better to do, give me a call at dampyria(at)gmail(dot)com.

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JD pushed open the door to his favorite dinner in search of a little quiet and peace. He had a difficult day behind him, and this restaurant was his sanctuary.

Early that day the main ATF computer short circuited and the entire network went down, leaving a bunch of unhappy agents with nothing better to do then to pester him.

It's not like he didn't understand them. He was an agent himself and knew that this could mean delays, not to mention criminals walking free. But damn it!! He wasn't the only computer expert on the force!!

Looking around the dinner he noticed that the place was packed. The tables were full as was the sitting area around the counter. Swearing at his luck he almost renounced, when he saw an empty space. Well it wasn't completely empty. There was a stranger sitting there and the other patrons of the dinner seemed to avoid him. There was like a negative space surrounding him that people sensed and stirred clear off.

JD couldn't blame them. The stranger has an air about him that screamed – get the hell away from me or else. He was a little taller then JD, with dark, almost black hair. His skin was tanned like he spent a lot of time in the sun, but the most striking thing on him was the black eye patch, that even at this distance was clearly seen, that it covered a nasty scar.

It was like one of those characters in the movies. Dark and dangerous, with a tragic past that brought about a lot of brooding. JD couldn't help himself. His interest was piquet. With a sure stroll he sauntered toward the counter and placed his order before approaching tall, dark and broody.

"Hey man, mind if I sit here? The place is packed!" smiled at the surprised chocolate colored eye that stared out at him and without waiting for an invitation he set down.

"Man the last time I've seen this place this full was during the Comic convection in June. Let me tell you there were some funny dressed dudes around at the time. By the way my name is JD, what's yours?"

The man hadn't moved an inch from the time JD made his introduction, and now was alternately looking from his face to his extended hand like a confused little child. The dangerous man seemed to be washed away and in its place there was this lost and lonely stranger. JD could work with that.

"Oh I am sorry, don't you speak English?" he asked pretending to be a little embarrassed "Habla spanol? No? Parla italiano? Govoriš Slovensko? Sprechen sie Deutsch? Говорим по-русски? Anything? Huh, I am running out of languages."

The stranger was now staring at him like he had just came in touch with a, as of now, still unknown alien life form. He was going to speak. Score one for JD.

"God kid, do you have a death wish?" asked that stranger a little louder then he intended. The dinner suddenly fell silent as they all turned around to look at their table. The Nick Furry wannabe looked around feeling like the proverbial deer caught in the headlights, while JD only smiled and waved the attention away.

Seeing that there wasn't gonna be a fight or any other similar episode people started to loose their interest and returned to their meals. "Death wish?" he asked confused. "What do you mean?"

Frowning slightly the man pointed at his face. "Are you blind? Don't you see that I have my 'don't bother me or else' face on?"

JD leaned forward and stopped mere inches from the others face scrutinizing it for a minute, then set back with a frown of his own. "Is that what that's supposed to be? I have to tell you, my boss has a much more scary stare then you."

"Who are you working for? The Russian mafia? Cause I have to tell you, that with this glare I scared away some pretty imposing people. Hell I even scare myself sometimes when I practice it in front of the mirror."

"Well, that explains that." replied JD, nodding his head wisely.

"What exactly do you mean by that?" he snarled, scaring the waitress that brought over JD food. The plate would have fallen on the ground if not for the strangers fast reflexes, the glass of milk wasn't so lucky.

The waitress, Sara, apologized profoundly and run off in search of another glass and something to clean the mess on the floor.

JD looked at him accusingly and crossed his arms in front of him. "Now look what have you done! I swear if I get kicked out of my favorite dinner because of you, there will he hell to pay, you… you… What's your name anyway?"

"Xander. And what do you mean my fault? You are the one that decided to sit here and annoy me! It's totally your fault."

JD was about to counter attack when his brain processed what his companion said. "Xander? Really? What kind of name is that?"

"A lot better then my second name." murmured Xander.

"Which is?" JD piped out curious.

"Over my dead body." He growled.

"Kinda long for a second name."

"That's not… look what do you want with me?" asked an exasperated Xander.

"What makes you think that I want something? I'm here for the food and a chat. It's so boring to eat alone."

Xander was about to explode when he noticed the waitress, fearfully making her way toward them. He schooled his expression, put his hands on the table in plain sight and tried to appear as harmless as possible. Of course, after his earlier performance, it didn't help much, but JD gave him extra points for trying.

As soon as the floor was cleaned Sara retreated behind the counter, once again safe from the crazy one-eyed customer.

"See what I mean?" tried to explain Xander wildly pointing in the girl's direction. "She got it." then waved his hand to include the entire restaurant. "They got it. There is no way that you could have missed it. So, one last time, what do you want from me?"

JD sighed. "Well it seemed like you had a rough day, or week. I had a shitty day. So I thought that maybe we could finish this shitty day together."

Xander slammed his glass on the table, grateful that he hadn't been drinking during the kids speech.

"What?!" he asked confused and a little embaraced not sure that he heard right.

JD looked at him innocently, like a new-born kitty. "You know, rant, complain and maybe even get drunk, stuff like that? I normally do this with my coworkers, but since they are the reason I am so frustrated, I need a new buddy that I can complain to. What do you say?"

And there it was again. The look that says more then words ever could. "Are you out of your mind?" asked Xander incredibly. "You can't just go around picking up dangerous strangers. Hasn't anybody thought you that this is a fast way to get yourself in trouble?"

"Dangerous?" asked JD frowning and pretending to scan the room: "Where?"

"For the love of…. Okay. Okay. I'm in. Better me then some psycho that will cut you to pieces. Besides after the year that I just had I think I am entitled to a little rant time."

JD put the last piece of pie in his mouth and smiled triumphant. "Let's go."

"Go where?" sighed Xander exasperated, feeling like he was loosing control of the situation. Then thinking back, he realized that he had never had it.

JD skipped to the counted and paid for their meals, while Xander followed him with a more sedate pace, asking himself all the while, what the hell was he doing, and that the kid was probably some kind of demon after his organs.

After leaving the dinner JD kept up a light conversation, mainly with himself, seeing as Xander only participated with an occasional grunt or nod of the head. Fact that didn't discourage JD. He had a lot of practice with silent companions, after all he had spent more then one stake-out in Vin's company.

Xander had to give credit where credit was due. The kid really knew the best places to party and to let go of some steam. They hooped from bar to bar, talking, ranting and dancing. Each change of bar saw them getting more relaxed and yes a little more drank. Finally they ended up in Xanders run-down hotel room sprawled on the bed, talking over beer and not really watching old reruns that played on the TV. After a couple of hours the chatting died out and they concentrated on the, previously ignored, television.

During one of the commercials JD threw a snick pick at his companion, noticing that he was out cold. Lying there like that he was the picture of innocence. JD fuzzy brain decided then to concentrate itself on the full, slightly parted, lips that seemed inviting him for a kiss. Slowly, he rolled over giving Xander a gentle peck on the lips, before feeling sick and making a mad dash for the toilet.

Xander cracked his eye open and looked around the room wondering what woke him up. Hearing the sound of vomiting coming from the bathroom he smirked and buried his face into the pillow, thinking that in the morning he will help himself and JD to a generous dose of Willows all purpose anti-pain med and promptly got back to sleep.

JD's awakening the next morning was not gentle, or slow. One moment there was bliss and unconsciousness, the next there was pain and a laud continues noise. The boy tried to escape it by taking refuge under the cover, but all his attempts to return back to the land of Sandman were futile.

The covers were to tin and didn't block out the infernal sound of the … blender?? Where the hell did Buck get a blender?! JD opened one blurry eye and risked an exploratory look out of his sanctuary.

No, definitely not his bed, or his room for that matter. Has he been kidnapped again? And then an all too cheerful Xander entered his peripheral vision and the last night came crushing in on him.

"Hey there, sleepy head." Xander exclaimed happily sitting on the bed with a glass of something in his hands.

In that minute he hated him. How can he be so happy and refreshed, first thing in the morning after all the alcohol that they consumed the last night?

"Bastard!" He murmured quietly, but Xander heard him anyway.

"Believe it or not I was in the same condition when I first woke up. But then I drank Willows super anti –hangover concoction and voile – as good as new. Now come on big guy close your eyes and nose and down it goes. In a single gulp."

JD wanted to protest but as soon as he opened his mouth the rim of the glass was pressed to his lips and a dense liquid begun to tickle down his throat. At that point he had two choices: Drink or drown. Being the sensible person he was he chose the first option.

Gulping down the beverage he tried not to think what was in it, or taste it for that matter, a good thing considering that as soon as his tasting buds come out of their alcohol induced stupor they begun to protest the invasion loudly.

Jerking into a sitting position he leaned forward, clear of the bed, preparing himself to throw up. Out of nowhere a cold cloth appeared on his forehead, while a hand snuck to the nape of his neck, massaging delicately.

"It's okay." whispered a voice to his ear. "Close your eyes, deep breaths, just like that. You are doing fine. Just a little while longer and you will be fine."

JD closed his eyes and let himself go, relaxing in the others arms and trying to follow the instructions. Pretty soon the nausea was gone and other sensations took over. He become aware of the fact that Xander was obviously sitting behind him on the bed, his legs on either side of his own, one hand on his forehead while the other moved to his back, making small soothing circles.

The kid closed his eyes for a moment and enjoyed the ministrations. It was heaven on earth. He could feel the rising and falling of Xander's chest as well as the strong arms currently working their magic on him. Then Xander shifted behind him and JD became aware of just how close they were sitting. Back to chest, thigh to thigh, crotch to … JD shuddered.

"Hey are you okay? By now you should feel better." whispered Xander in his ear. This time JD moaned. The shutting hand on his back stopped moving and JD froze. Had he screw up the chance to be Xander's friend?

Yesterday when he met him he wasn't looking for a friend. After the hard day at work he only wanted one thing – to eat a good meal and then hit the sack. Once in the dinner he noticed the dark and mysterious stranger and added a roll in the hey to his evening. Sadly, or not, the one night stand project was put on hold for the time being when he started talking to Xander and discovered that he had the potential to become friend material.

"Yes, all better now." JD exclaimed, jumping out of Xander's arms. He fumbled to collect his shoes all the while he had his back turned to Xander. "Man you should start selling that stuff. It works miracles."

When he was done tying his shoes JD pretended to check his watch and sighed: "Shit I am late for work! My boss is going to kill me!" Of course it was all a lie. In fact Chris had forbidden him from showing his face at work before noon that day and now it was only nine a.m. Still, it was as good as any excuse to leave this room. It was a cowardly thing to do and he knew it, but somehow he couldn't face Xander and his disappointed or worse disgusted face right now.

Making a quick dash for the door he was stopped by a quiet voice: "JD?"

The question didn't sound disgusted or angry. As best as he could describe it would be confused. Gathering all his courage he turned around and checked out the others stance. Xander was still sitting on the bed, studying him with a curious expression.

"What is wrong? Did I do something?" Xander inquired.

"What? No!!" exclaimed JD, then realizing how his voice sounded he calmed down and tried again. "No, you didn't do anything. I am just late for work."

Chewing on his lower lip he looked at the other man. "I have to hurry, but what do you say we meet up latter and hung out some more?"

"Ah sorry, but I can't…"

"Hey, no big. Maybe another time, another place and all that." started babbling JD, while simultaneously all his hopes started to crumble.

Xander lifted his arm demanding attention. "As I was saying, I can't do that because my plane leaves in two hours. But if you want I can give you my contact information so we can stay in touch and the next time I pass through we can meet up."

"Oh." was JD's very intelligent response.

Xander snorted and reached for his wallet, producing a small rectangular piece of paper and handing it to JD.

Alexander L. Harris

NWC – Scotland

Tel: (+44) 555-738

xanderharris (at) nwc (dot) com

"NWC?" asked JD.

"New Watchers Council."

"You a piping tom?" asked JD frowning.

"No, we are an international company that deals with different thing. From charity to archeology to schools for gifted kids that can't afford to pay tuition. You could say we are everywhere." Smirked Xander, reciting the official motto of their company.

JD blushed a little. "Sorry." He murmured.

"Don't be. You are not the first or the last one to ask me this question."

"At list that's something." said JD, fishing a similar piece of paper from his pants. "This is mine."

ATF

John 'JD' Dunne

Special agent

060-555-799

JD Dunne (at) atf (dot) gov

"ATF? Whoa, you a cop?" blunted out Xander, eyes going wide.

"Hey, don't look so surprised. I'll have you know that I am the best computer wizard out there. I can find anything, everywhere."

Xander lifted his hands in a pacifying sign. "Didn't mean anything by it. You just don't look like your typical cop, that's all. And hey if you are really this good at computers then I should introduce you to Willow. She is a genius with that stuff."

"Yeah, well…"

"Look I would love to chat some more, but I can't miss my flight, so…"

"Yeah. It was nice meeting you… oh and if you want to e-mail me there is my personal address on the back of my card."

Xander grinned. "Well, great minds thing alike…" then he flipped the card and read: hacherchaser (at) dunne (dot) com

At the same time JD flipped his own card – nickfurry (at) gmail (dot) com

"I have to say that I see the similarities." Said JD.

"You do?" asked Xander intrigued. "Of course you so. I am a younger, sexier version of The Man!" he said with more feeling this time.

"The Man?" snorted JD. He could just hear the capital M. "What are you, stuck in the 90'?" then looking at the clock he turned toward the door. "I better be going, don't want to make you loose your plane. Hope to see you again soon."

"Same here."

ATF BUILDING

The office was busy, busier than usual. The computers were finally back on-line and the agent were working fast to get back on track with their current cases. The Branch wasn't different from the other sections.

Buck survived the office area with critical eye and frowned. No sign of their young friend, which was weird. He was always the first one to get to work and the last one to leave. Something just wasn't right. And he wasn't even considering the fact that the boy didn't come home that night. Could be that he got lucky?

"Still no signs of the kid?" asked Vin, interpreting the others man frown.

"No, still not here. Do you thing somebody could have kidnapped him? He didn't come home last night."

"Or maybe the young man had found a fine lady, to past the time with." Ezra throw in his two cents.

"Girls, if you don't stop gossiping and return to word I will be forced to put you in separate rooms." boomed Chris's voice. The three agents took one look at their boss and without so much as a pip they turned back to their computers. Only a mad-man would dare contradict Chris when he was this angry.

The doors to the office suddenly busted open and a very relaxed and smiling JD entered: "Hey guys, do not fear the computer genius is here."

"JD, the Johnson and Dawson file. STAT!" growled Chris and entered his office.

"On it Boss!" exclaimed JD grinning like a loon and throwing himself into work.

The others only exchanged knowing looks and grinned. It seems that their younger colleague got lucky that night.

PLANE OVER THE PACIFIC

Xander sat in a comfortable first class chair and stared out of the window, distractly passing his finger over his lower lip. Something was bothering him. He had a feeling that last night happened something important, but for the life of him he couldn't remember what it was.

Oh well, if it was really important, it will come to him, sooner or later.

THE END


	2. Long distance friendship

**DINNER MEETINGS 2 – LONG DISTANCE FRIENDSHIP**

Author: Dampyria

Fandom: M7 / BtVS crossover

Summary: Isn't e-mail a wonderful thing?

Rating: PG13

Paring: JD/Xander (pre-slash)

Spoilers: BtVS (Post season 7 – Pre Comics season 8), M7 (none) ATF universe.

Disclaimer**: **I do not own Magnificent Seven or Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Still looking for a beta.

This story is for Kohanita, who left me my very first review. Thank you.

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From: Nick Furry

To: Hacker Chaser

Subject: Made it

Yesterday I barely made it to the plane. Seems like, there was some kind of accident on the road. I arrived twenty minutes late, but as it turns out, if you are flying first class they are willing to wait for you.

That, of course, doesn't make the other passengers on the plane very happy, or the flight assistant, as I found out. In the short time that it took us to arrive, she managed to spill a drink on me, shove me in a wall and drive the buffet carriage over my foot. Ow, still feeling it!

Once at home my only wish was to eat something and go to sleep, but the girls have other planes. Yes, you guessed it. There was a welcome home party, and I am not talking about your average party where there are a couple of friends sitting around talking and catching up. What I am talking about is a huge party, twenty plus people, loud music, dancing and, thank God, eating.

Did I mention I was starving? Because of the way the flight attendant was treating me I was scared shitless to eat anything that she gave me. I kid you not. I think that given a chance, she would have poisoned my food.

Anyway the party was going fine, everybody was having a great time when suddenly Willow (that's my best friend) and her girlfriend Kennedy started having some kind of argument. Things declined rapidly from there and pretty soon there were objects flying all over the place and windows breaking.

So now, the day after, I am preparing myself to fix the window and the furniture that got smashed yesterday. :(

Home sweet home. In spied of everything, I am happy to be back home and back to normality. :)

Bye

Xander

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From: Hacker Chaser

To: Nick Furry

Subject: Re: Made it

Must have been an interesting flight. Seems like, you were kept on your toes the entire trip. And by the way - first class? Do you guys have any position openings?

Kidding! :p I love my job and I would never leave. The guys that I work with are great, even if they treat me like a kid from time to time.

The episode with your friend and her girlfriend made me smile. Not that I enjoy when people fight! It just reminded me of an episode with my roommate, Buck. He is a real ladies man. Woman love him and he loves woman. But as you can imagine with this many partners there is bound to be a hitch from time to time.

I remember this girl Tina, a real looker. We just entered the Saloon (our fav bar) and as soon as Buck saw her he was on her like bees on honey.

They seemed to hit it off. That is until the girls sweetheart entered the bar with her friends and saw what was happening.

Thinking that Buck was cruising on her girl, Clara, a real scary lady if you ask me, and her fellow, even scarier, ladies surrounded them and begun arguing and tossing accusations around.

Seeing that Buck was in trouble we joined the marry congregation trying to calm the woman down. Sadly they took it as sign of male aggression toward womanhood and – well my male ego won't let me finish this story.

Suffice to say that we got kicked out of the Saloon and got two weeks prohibition to enter the place. A real tragedy, I tell you!

Anyway I have to go. Got a new case.

Stay safe

JD

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From: Nick Furry

To: Hacker Chaser

Subject: Friends!

Your friend Buck seems like an interesting guy. I think I have his counterpart here. Her name is Faith and she practically eats man and then throws them out. (personal experience here) Luckily in her old years she mellowed out and now is dating, pretty steadily I might add, a guy named Robin.

He is good for her, she is more centered and less heretic. Which, trust me, is a good thing. (personal experience again) We even got over our differences and are now on speaking terms again. Still not friends, but we are working in that direction.

[The guys that I work with are great, even if they treat me like a kid from time to time.]

I feel your pain. I have the same problem with my girls. It's like I am stuck in the role of the immature sixteen year old forever. I feel like I am split in two. One half I play in front of my friends, the other is for all the other occasions. But I guess it's a little my fault. I never really pushed the issue that I grow up with them. I never really worked hard, to prove that I changed in the last eight years.

Oh well….

Changing the subject, I managed to repair the window and the furniture that fell prey to Willows and Kennedy's argument. They were really sorry about what happened. Well Wills was anyway. She baked my favorite chocolate biscuits. Kennedy didn't seem all that sorry. I suspect that she doesn't like me much. My guess is that she is afraid that I will steal Willow away. Not gonna happened! One fluke was more than enough, besides she is gay now, I lack the right parts for the thing to work. :)

Such is my life now…carpentry work and defense against jealous girlfriends. It could be worse.

Till next time

Xander

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From: Hacker Chaser

To: Nick Furry

Subject: Life…

[It's like I am stuck in the role of immature sixteen year old forever. I feel like I am split in two.]

Then we are more similar then we thought. I have the same problem, specially with Buck, but as you said I never pushed the issue. I don't want to disappoint them or something. It's not that I hate it, just sometimes it would be nice not to be a kid in their eyes.

Wait! You said that you grow up in the last eight years. If you were sixteen when you met them then that makes you twenty-four!

Ha! You are a year younger then I. Who is the kid now?

… ^_^''

Sorry … just let me gloat a little.

:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

Okay, all done now. But seriously I would never thought that you were younger than me. You looked so serious, dangerous and kind of attractive, in the brooding hero type of way. :p

You looked like you had the weight of the world on your shoulders. It was really depressing watching you. I hope that now that you are home you feel better, with all your friends around you. I know that sometimes they could be a nuisance, but it's good to have them around. The same as me and my guys.

Someday you should meet them. You are going to like them. Buck I already told you about. Then there is Chris, which I also mentioned, if you remember from the morning after. He is the boss, very tough, but fair. He and Buck are friends, like, since forever.

Next on the list is Vin. He is kind of a solitary man, used to be a sniper for the Rangers. Then there is Ezra, our undercover agent extraordinaire. Don't ever play cards with him! You will be left without pants!! Literally!!!

Josiah is like our spiritual guide. He was a preacher for some time, followed in the footsteps of his father and all that. He always has some interesting tid-bit about something or other. He and Nathan argue a lot about philosophy and things like that.

Nathan is our medic and if a team ever needed a medic it is ours. You wouldn't believe some of the cases that we investigate!

That makes me think. You never said what was your job? I seriously doubt that you only fix things around. You don't seem the type. Amaze me!

xoxo

JD

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From: Nick Furry

To: Hacker Chaser

Subject: My job(s)

[Ha! You are a year younger then I. Who is the kid now]

With that face? No way! What are you some kind of immortal – Duncan MacLoad type? Sorry my geeky side is showing. And for the sake of our friendship I hope that you have a side like that as well. Not to geeky, just occasionally knowledgeable about some main stream sci-fi movies and comics. If not I could always open your eyes to the greatness of geekness. (I just hope I didn't ruin our friendship with the last two sentences.)

[That makes me think. You never said what was your job? I seriously doubt that you only fix things around. You don't seem the type. Amaze me!]

Nothing amazing about my job. Most of the time, I just fix things around the house. From time to time they send me around to talk to people about joining our schools and stuff.

The most significant experience was the last year that I spent living in Africa. Now that was an experience and not always in a good way.

You wouldn't believe some of the stuff I saw. The poverty of some regions, children starving…It really shook me. I mean you watch Discovery and think that you know how bad it is. Once there you see it with your own eyes and realize that no TV show can picture what goes on there. I still dream about it sometimes.

And sometimes I dream about the tigers and lions, cause no matter what the guide said a thin piece of plastic is not an adequate protection against those beasts. Nor is a tree. Did you know, that they can climb a tree? I didn't!

On the bright side I got a really good picture of the beast's teeth. I will show it to you next time we meet. It's really impressive.

So here it is, my stellar carrier. (not mentioning the time I was working as a pizza delivery boy, selling ice cream, selling power bars, construction and many more.)

Hope it's not to disappointing,

Xander

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From: Hacker Chaser

To: Nick Furry

Subject: Africa?!

Disappointing? Are you serious? You have spent a whole year in Africa and you think I will be disappointed? Hell the majority of the guys I know have a 9 to 17 job. (Well most of the time, if we are not working a big case, or a small one…) Who am I kidding? If we manage to finish at five p.m. once a week it's a miracle.

But to stay on topic – you have traveled to another continent. Not many can say that. Hell most people haven't been out of America. When you will have time, you have to tell me all about it. And I don't mean the sad memories, but the fun ones. I bet you have a lot of anecdotes from your time there.

[I just hope I didn't ruin our friendship with the last two sentences.]

Again with the disbelieving. Did I look like someone that hasn't seen the last Spiderman movie as soon as it got out?

Besides your lousy taste in choosing your favorite character (Mythos is so much cooler then Duncan) I think our friendship is safe. ;)

Next time you are here we should go to the movies. Later we can discuss it while eating pizza and drinking beer, or a glass of water. (I don't think I will be able to drink Willow concoction again, if we got drunk.)

God, I hope that you will stop here for more than a single day. We have so much to talk about.

Hope to see you soon

JD

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From: Nick Furry

To: Hacker Chaser

Subject: Surprise!!

Ask and you shall receive. I was just told that I have to go to Main. Urgent, but fast and easy job. If all goes according to plan, I will make a stop in your fair city on my way back in a day or two. Then we can go to the movies. I heard that Hulk 2 is playing.

My plane is waiting so I have to go. I will call you when I land in Denver. BTW can I use your work phone?

X

p.s. By the way, I prefer Mythos too. Duncan is just too much of a boy scout for me. Amanda is cool too. :)

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From: Hacker Chaser

To: Nick Furry

Subject: Can't wait

We will have a blast. Cinema, food, party, talk… I will try to clear my schedule. At the time we don't have any big cases so I should be able to free myself for a day or two. Will talk about it to Chris, but it should be all right. No problem for the phone.

You are right Amanda is cool too. Never liked Richie or Tessa, but I had a sweet spot for Joe. The old guy sure knew how to play. Did you know that he published a couple of CD's? If you like jazz, you should listen to them.

See you soon

JD

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From: Nick Furry

To: Hacker Chaser

Subject: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong

My little expedition hit a little snag. Or big, if you consider a very angry older brother that thinks that I am hitting on his 19 y.o. sister. There was yelling and punching and more yelling, until I finally explained to him that I am from the school.

Then there was apologizing and a lot of ice. Because of that the negotiations took a little bit longer than expected. Not to worry. I will be a day late, but on the plus side now I can stay in Denver for two days instead of one. 'to heal' ;)

See you in a day

X

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From: Hacker Chaser

To: Nick Furry

Subject: Perfect…

I have put some extra hours at work so Chris agreed to let me go home at noon. If you fly in after 12 let me know so I can pick you up. If not we can meet at the dinner.

Safe flight and don't be late or this flight attendant could take things a little further than the previous one. Remember they manage all the food and drinks.

JD

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Tbc…

Next on Dinner meeting – the two lonely souls finally meet again and have a good time. Stay tuned…


	3. Nice meeting you again 1 of 2

**DINNER MEETINGS 3 – NICE MEETING YOU AGAIN**

Author: Dampyria

Fandom: M7 / BtVS crossover

Summary: A week-end spent together (part one)

Rating: PG17

Paring: JD/Xander (slash)

Spoilers: BtVS (Post season 7 – Pre Comics season 8), M7 (none – ATF universe)

Disclaimer**: **I do not own Magnificent Seven or Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

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First of all thanks for all the great reviews. They really helped me finish the story sooner, a great incentive. Hint, hint…

For what concerns the beta reader I am still searching for her/him. In the mean time I'm doing all that is in my power to check the story over. I am well aware that this is not enough, so I came up with a plan. If you, gentle readers, notice a mistake that I keep making over and over, please drop me a PM or an e-mail and I will try to make it all better.

As for the Mythos – Methos I will fix the spelling as soon as I figure out how to change the documents, without erasing the reviews. Thanks Kohanita.

Now on with the X/JD goodness…..

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It was a busy day at team seven office. Kind of unusual, considering that they spend most of their time in the field. Today, there were no big cases on the horizon. Normally that would mean an early dismissal and whiskey all around at the Saloon, normally!

Team seven might be one of the best out there when it comes to fighting crime, sadly the same couldn't be said about paperwork, as all the desks filled with papers could attest to. All, except one.

JD finished the last file and closed the computer with a satisfied smile. After days and days of boring, repetitive work he was finally free to enjoy the rest of his well earned week-end. He shut down the computer and went to find Chris.

"Hey boss-man, I'm all done for today," he smiled.

Chris lifted his head from the file he was finishing up: "All the cases?"

"Yes," grinned JD, swaying on his heels.

"The Johnson, Parker, Leonard case?"

"Yes, yes and yes."

"The Santi, Cornwell, Leopoldi?"

"Yes, yes and yes," said JD with a growing smile.

Chris shot a disgusted look at his overflow desk and snarled "Get the hell out of here before I shoot you!"

JD laughed and turned to leave when Chris stopped him. "After this we will spent the week-end at the ranch. Can we expect you?"

"Err no, sorry. I have other plans."

Chris smirked, "New girl-friend?"

After the horrible break-up with Cassie, the kid hasn't looked at another girl. Buck was desperate for his young friend, deemed it unhealthy and unnatural to be celibate at that age, with the possibility of serious consequences for the future development of the boys psyche.

But JD just shook his head and smiled. "Nope, just a new friend that is in town for a couple of days."

Watching the kids departure he wasn't so sure about the 'just friends' story. JD practically skipped out of the office like a five year kid that was promised an ice-cream. On the other hand it wasn't his place to interrogate his subordinate about his personal life. It would be unprofessional. No, he smirked; he will leave that pleasure to Buck and then just wait for the man to report back to him.

Buck and Ezra exchanged a confused look as JD resurfaced from Chris' office with a big smile on his face. Nobody leaves Chris office with a smile when there is paperwork involved! Something was wrong with that picture. Fact confirmed when JD begun to pack his over shoulder bag.

"Hey JD, what are you doing?" asked Buck.

"Did Chris assign you a new mission?" guessed Vin.

JD shook his head and without missing a beat, begun walking toward the elevator.

"Hey kiddo, wait up. Where are you going?" asked Back already hurrying after him.

"Airport," replied the young agent, stepping into the elevator.

"What for?"

Buck was about to follow him in the metal box, when a booming voice from the other side of the office stopped him dead in his tracks: "Don't even think to put your foot in there unless all the work is done Buck!"

"But Chris…" he whined. He wasn't about to let their younger colleague just walk out like that, without even a smidge of an explanation. Not in normal circumstances and certainly not when there is paperwork involved. If the kid was a real friend he should have offered to help with Bucks work when he finished his. That's what friends do!

"No buts. Finish the paperwork and then you are free to go where ever you want," said Chris feeling much like a babysitter watching a bunch of undisciplined kids. He had to confess that he was as eager as Buck about what JD was up to, but he wasn't going to put his own curiosity in front of his responsibilities. Besides, there was always Monday.

"JD…" Buck started to say but stopped when he found himself in front of closed doors, JD nowhere to be seen.

"Damn Chris, look at what have you done! Now I haven't found out what the kid is up to… … but I don't have to, do I? What is going on?" he asked his oldest friend.

"What is going on is that your stack of paper seems to multiply instead of decreasing. Back to work!"

"But JD…" protested Buck.

"JD actually finished his work, unlike the rest of you." Chris glared at the others members of his team. All of them were pretending to work, while secretly listening to the conversation. 'Bunch of kids indeed.'

"Back to work. Now!"

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JD shuddered in the elevator. Even if it was impossible through steel walls, he could swear, that he heard Chris booming voice yelling orders to the others. Silently he offered a prayer for his still suffering companions, while at the same time celebrating that he got out of there.

As soon as he reached the underground parking lot he hurried to his car and jumped in. Despite what he had said to Xander in his email, he still couldn't believe that Chris had authorized him to leave work early.

He half expected a phone call telling him that he was needed back in the office. Of course, rationally he knew that Chris would never do that, but emotionally he wasn't so sure. So nobody could really blame him if he stepped a little too heavily on the gas, not even the stupid patrol officer. 'Damn, he was gonna be late!'

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Surprisingly enough, Xander's plane landed on time. He has already gone through the security check and was now waiting to pick up his bag, all the while surveying the airport for any sign of his friend.

Hoisting his bag onto the shoulder Xander moved to the waiting area and sat in one of the chairs, wincing as his bruises made contact with the hard surface. He wondered briefly why the hell they didn't use a more comfortable material for the seats.

As the discomfort faded so did all the questions of soft surfaces, leaving space for more important thoughts to enter his mind. More accurately the whereabouts of one ATF agent, that was supposed to pick him up.

Picking up his cell phone he hit the speed dial and waited for a response.

As it turned out JD was running a little late, due to some trouble with a patrol officer. It's funny. One might think that cops help each other out in situations like that, or at list that's what happens in the movies. In reality there was some kind of animosity between different branches of law enforcers.

So instead of going away scot free, JD received a ticket and on top of that he was forced to listen to a half an hour long sermon about the dangers of speeding.

With JD's rant still loudly ringing in his ear, Xander got as comfortable as he could manage and promptly fell asleep.

When JD finally made it to the airport he had no difficulty finding Xander. All he had to do was follow the loud snores. Taking a moment to study the other man, he noticed the dark circle under his eye that had started to fade to a dark purple and the ruffled clothes. The other appeared to be tired, but JD was happy to see that the air of despair that surrounded the young man on their first meeting was gone.

Deciding that he could not possibly part with the cuteness without taking some kind of trophy, he fished out his cell phone and took several photos before finally waking his victim up.

"Hey Xan!" he called before gently shaking him awake. "Taking an afternoon nap, are we?"

"Wha…?" Xander blinked, looking around himself, confused until his gaze stopped on a grinning JD. Matching him grin for grin Xander stretched on the plastic chair trying to work out the kinks without to much pain.

"Yes old man, you should know all about it," he shot before standing up to engulf the other man in a bear hug.

"From the mouth of the babes…" retaliated JD returning the hug.

After a while they separated with a last manly pat on the back and started moving toward the parking lot.

"How was your flight?" asked JD trying to start a conversation.

"It was good. No murderous attendants or angry passenger mobs, ready to draw out their pitch-forks the moment I close my eyes."

"I take it that today you were on time?" smirked JD.

"Not only on time, but I got there one hour early. Can you imagine? Of course there was another poor bastard that was late twenty minutes."

"Was he also afraid for his life?"

"Strangely enough there was no sigh of impeding doom. The other passengers were a little annoyed, but that was all. Figures, that the one time I am a little late the flight attendant turned out to be the easily angered type. It's the story of my life."

"You are aware that now you will have to explain that statement?"

"Yes, but not right now. So what's the plan?" asked Xander stopping right behind JD as he was unlocking the car. "And by the way, nice car!"

"She's a beauty, isn't she? Unfortunately it's not mine, a friend loaned it to me for the week-end. I don't own a car, but I have this fabulous bike, it's my baby," Smiled JD proudly, as if he was talking about his child. "I rebuild it myself, piece by piece."

"So you are quite good with mechanics. It would have come in handy the time that my engine literally fell out of my car."

When JD opened his mouth to ask further questions Xander silenced him with a hand gesture: "It's a really long story and no power on earth is going to make me reveal it."

"Okay so then how about a bike race? I could show you some of my moves." Grinned JD suggestively.

Xander looked at JD strangely for a moment then shook his head: "Sorry but I am not a big fan of bikes. Still having nightmares of the time I rode with Faith. I thought we were as good as dead. That girl is a public menace."

"No big, it was just an idea. So what would you like to do today? Sight-seeing, movies?" asked JD, while starting up the car.

"Well. I'm pretty beat from the last couple of days. What do you say if we dump my bag at the motel and then go to the theatre, followed by a delicious dinner?"

"Works for me," said the agent carefully driving out of the parking lot. Xander relaxed on the soft, comfy seat and closed his eye for a minute, only to open it again in terror, as JD left the parking lot and sped up at inhuman speed leaving behind him screeching tires and angry shouts.

"Say wouldn't you happen to take your driving lessons from a short blond girl named Buffy, would you?" Xander griped the door handle and closed his eye as they speed by a truck, nearly colliding with a car coming from the opposite direction.

"Nah, Buck gave me some lessons. She one of your friends?"

"Yeah, second oldest," said Xander holding his breath as they took a nasty looking curb at full speed. "Merciful Zeus! Have I told you that we don't allow her to drive anymore?"

"That must suck for her," replied JD cheerfully, then taking pity on his companion slowed down. "Relax. I'm good at this. Here, put this CD in. You will love it."

Still a little mistrustful, Xander forced his fingers to let go of the handle and grabbed the item, studding it, trying to guess its contents. When no answer was forthcoming from the blank CD label, he plucked it in and waited for the music to start.

He didn't need to wait long. Pretty soon the vehicle was filled with the longing sound of a guitar. Now Xander was, what you call, a western guy through and through, but there was something about the music that spoke to him.

"Pretty good," he found himself commenting, relaxing a little more. "Who is playing?"

"Remember we talked about Highlander?" JD reminded him.

"So?"

JD waited a couple of minutes for Xanders brain kick in and then: "No way! This is Joe Dawson? Damn he is good!"

"Actually his real name is Jim Byrnes, but yeah that's the guy."

The rest of the ride was spent mostly in silence, broken only when JD asked for the address of the motel Xander was staying at.

Once they arrived at the destination Xander jumped out of the car and went to the reception, leaving JD alone to admire the place.

The motel was old and a little run down, but kept in good shape by the owners. It was probably build in the seventies. The small buildings that housed the rooms were scattered around a small patch of land surrounded by threes and pick-nick tables. All in all not bad, but he was sure that Xander could afford a five star hotel in the center of the city, if he wanted to. It was one of the things that bothered him about his new friend.

"Ready to go?" asked Xander, joining him at the car. "My room is lucky number 13. It should be one of those rooms back there." He said and pointed his finger to one of the most isolated rooms.

Following the one eyed man with a light jog he decided to satisfy his curiosity. "Why did you choose this location? Don't get me wrong, but since you travel first class, shouldn't you be able to afford a nicer place?"

"Yes, but I … It doesn't feel right. The new places don't have that feeling of being lived in, of having a soul. They are nice, but feel empty."

"I guess I get where you are coming from. Even if I would prefer a five star place myself. So what is about the planes then? Why go first class?"

"That is a whole new can of worms. I like being comfy when I travel," grinned Xander, unlocking the door.

"You're a very strange man," commented JD.

"You have no idea!" smiled Xander, quoting his favorite line from the movie Reversal of Fortune. "You mind if I take a quick shower?"

JD head shot up while imagines of a naked Xander filled his mind. The tepid water hitting his lean body, leaving it wet and lick-able. Then there comes the soap, bubbly and slippery…

"Hey JD, you still in there?" Xander poked him in the arm, trying to get his attention back from wherever it went.

"Oh yes sorry. Sure I will just wait here." JD wasn't sure how he managed it, but he was able to put more than two words together and made them make sense. A real accomplishment if you ask him.

"Be right back and then we can decide about the movie we are seeing."

With that Xander left the room and closed himself in the shower. There was a moment of silence and then the water started to run. Before he understood what he was doing JD had already crossed the room and was lifting his hand to the bathroom door, before stopping himself. What the hell was he doing?

A couple of hours in Xanders company and he had turned into a pervert that spies on people in the showers. Shaking his head he took a step back and then another, until he was with his back to the opposite wall. Then, and only then, he found the strength to turn around and leave the room.

Sitting on the near-by wooden table, he cursed himself about not smoking. If he ever needed a cigarette, it was now.

His hands were shaking as if someone had just taken a shot at him. He didn't get it. One moment he was talking to his friend, the next he had this urge to jump the guy. Something like that never happened to him. Not with boys or even girls.

The feeling was so instantaneous that he hadn't had the time to police his actions. He just went for it. If Xander only knew…

Fifteen minutes later the young watcher emerged from the house, clean shaven and in new clothes. Seemingly unaware of the others turbulent feelings he sat on the table and opened the laptop that he brought with him.

"So I was checking the local theatres and came up with a couple of different choices in movies. See?" he asked angling the screen so that they could both look at it.

"We have Spiderman 3 at tree p.m., than there is Hulk 2 at three thirty. We could watch one of these. Or we could go to the mall and make a marathon out of it. Watching one movie after the other and taking a quick bite in between. What do you think?"

"JD? Are you okay?" was concerned Xander. He didn't know the boy all that well, but the impression he got from him was that JD wouldn't normally stare at tin air.

"What? Oh sorry I spaced out. Again. I guess I still have my head screwed on work. Let me see… Yes the mall has definitely my vote. What about you?"

Xander didn't look all that convinced that everything was okay with his friend, but he would let it slide, for now. "The mall it is. Quick, to the bat-mobile."

JD watched Xanders retreating jeans clad ass, and not having the crazy urge to tackle him to the ground and ravish him, he chunked his reaction up to the dry spell that hit him the moment Cass dumped him, four months ago.

When they arrived at the theatre most of the tickets were already sold, as it was to be expected, but they managed to score a couple of good seats from a girl that was stood up by her boyfriend. From her angry face and snide comments, they really didn't envy the poor bastard.

The movies were okay, even if the first ones were much better. In the time between the movies they mostly discussed sci-fi, the movies, series and special effects. Xander was ecstatic. Finally he found a guy with whom he could freely discuss sci-fi without the other thinking that he was a geek and with no need to be fanatic about it like with Andrew.

Time passed quickly and before they knew it, they were back to the motel, with a bag of junk food and sodas. This setting reminded JD a lot their 'first night together' without all the alcohol.

It was the perfect time for him to make his move on the unsuspecting youth, but like with all best laid plans, thing didn't go according to his wishes.

The TV was playing an old Spiderman series and pretty soon they were deeply involved in discussing the differences about the series and the movie they just saw.

At some point JD noticed that his companion had suddenly gone silent. Looking back at Xander, he saw that much like the first night the boy had fallen asleep with a soda can still in his hand. At first he was a little stunned and disappointed by the turn of events, but soon he found the funny part of it and started snickering.

It seemed like it wasn't meant to be tonight. Besides, he rationalized, Xander was dead tired. Not the perfect time to start anything. Also they had another full day to play together.

Bending over, he retrieved the half empty can and put it on the night-table on Xanders side. On his way back he couldn't help himself not to touch him. He put his hand on the others' chest and then slide it slowly down to his hip.

Looking up, from his illegal exploration he noticed a single chocolate eye watching him sleepily. With his hand still on Xander's hip he lowered his eyes to the full, slightly parted lips and then back to the eye.

His heart was pounding like crazy. Without saying a word he bended toward the inviting lips, and than he chickened out.

"You fell asleep with a half empty soda in your hand," he murmured.

Xander stared at him for a couple more minutes and then, instead of taking the initiative like JD hoped he would, he turned around and promptly fell back to sleep.

JD observed the turned back with regret, before deciding that nothing more was going to happen tonight. He laid down and tried to go to sleep. Two hours later he was still wide awake and painfully aware of the Watchers body right beside his.

'Tomorrow.' He repeated to himself over and over. 'Tomorrow is another day.'

Tbc…..

Next: Second part of the story – day two.


	4. Nice meeting you again 2 of 2

**DINNER MEETINGS 4 – NICE MEETING YOU AGAIN 2**

Author: Dampyria

Fandom: M7 / BtVS crossover

Summary: A week-end spent together (part two) or Xander is finally hit by the clue hammer. (thanks Lady FoxFire – a most fitting phrase)

Rating: PG17

Paring: JD/Xander (slash)

Spoilers: BtVS (Post season 7 – Pre Comics season 8), M7 (none – ATF universe)

Disclaimer**: **I do not own Magnificent Seven or Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Xanders first sensation upon awakening was that of a warm body tightly squeezed against his own. A leg was thrown between his, its thigh neatly nestled against his pubic region while a hand had slipped under his t-shirt and was comfortably resting on his chest.

Mostly still asleep, Xander lifted his arm and moving as little as possible, caressed the dark haired head snuggled under his chin. He didn't want to change this status quo. His still sleeping brain was sending him all kinds of happy signals and he had to agree with it. He hadn't woken up, feeling this good in a long, long time.

His movement must have disturbed his bed partner. The body against his stirred slightly and in doing so the thigh between his legs rubbed lightly against him. The moan that escaped his mouth must have further awakened the other person, since the next thing he knew, a pair of lips begun to nibble at his neck, moving slowly upward, until they came in contact with their real target.

Mouth slided against mouth, first lightly then more forcefully until Xanders lips parted and allowed access to a tongue. Thing spiraled rapidly from there. The next thing Xander knew he had grabbed the other and with a 180 degree shift a pro would be jealous off, climbed atop of the other and without a break continued the kissing with renewed enthusiasm.

The passion was building rapidly and in a desperate attempt to relieve even a fraction of it, he trusted forward with his hips. That was when he felt it. Not the feminine form that he had expected, but a more angled, masculine one.

Stopping himself in an instant he lifted himself to him elbows and for the first time since he woke up, looked his companion in the face.

"JD?" he asked disbelievingly.

"Yeah, you expecting someone else?"

"No…yes…I mean… a girl for starters."

"You calling me a girl?"

"No, no but I am not gay. Never been with a bloke."

"Then why are you still lying atop of me?

Xander sighed and lowered his forehead to the others shoulder. "Would you believe me if I said I am in shock?"

The body below his started shaking and very soon JD was laughing out loud like a loon. Xander lifted himself to his knees and then heavily sat down at the bottom of the bed.

"Man! And all this time I thought that you were only undecided if you liked me or not. Have you even kissed another man before me?"

"No, I told you I am not gay."

"Well you may not be gay, but you are a hundred percent bi."

"How can you be sure? Did you sensed me with your gaydar, or something?"

"Hello you slept in the same bed with me."

"I was drunk."

"Twice!"

"Tired," glared Xander back.

"You touched me all the time."

"I am a very touchy feely person. It doesn't mean anything."

"We practically had a five minute conversation, with you laying on top of me."

"Shock?"

"Is that a question?"

"So I am bi?"

"Only you can answer this question, but if you want my opinion yes, you are," confirmed JD. "Come on. You can have the best from both worlds! It's not a bad thing. Think of it like expanding your hunting ground by fifty percent. More opportunities to get laid."

"Or killed."

"What?"

"Nothing," sighed Xander, getting up. He walked to the night table and took his wallet and cell phone. "I'm going for some groceries, do you want something?"

"Xander…"

"Sorry, just need a couple of minutes for myself to digest this. Be back in fifteen. You sure you don't need anything?"

"No I am good," said JD looking Xanders retreating bottom with regret.

'Oh well,' he thought. 'Xander hadn't punched me, outright pushed me away, or called me names. The guy needs some time to come to terms with this new earth shattering discovery about his sexuality. He will come around. Eventually.'

JD really hoped that it was gonna be sooner then later, because he couldn't take much more of this roller-coaster. 'And speaking of coasters, I have a little problem that I have to take care off.' He thought looking at his groin.

On the other side of the door Xander set on the pick-nick table, trying not to hyperventilate. He had kissed a guy. But he didn't know that it was a guy. He didn't know it was JD….

Taking a deep breath to steady him self, he begun analyzing the situation. Putting aside the gay or bi question he concentrated on the important part of the equation. JD, his friend, pal, fellow sci-fi geek.

In his mind the young ATF agent was a friend, rapidly moving towards the section of his brain dedicated to friends of the caliber of Buffy, Giles and Willow. But was he something more? In the past he had crushes on Buffy and Willow, but that was all they were, crushes and teenage lust.

So, no love here. He liked the guy, just not in the let's spend the life together for all eternity kind of way. Was he lusting after him? The thought never crossed his mind, until now, that's it. Before he found out that he was kissing a man, he was really enjoying their little morning session. Now that the surprise and shock had faded away he could confess to himself that he didn't mind it all that much even after his discovery of man-bits.

Of course there was another option. He stood up from the table and begun walking toward a near-by convenience store, while hitting speed dial number two on his phone. Almost immediately a very grumpy voice greeted him: "This better be good, if you want to live."

"Hi Willow, my bestest, most reliable and non-violent friend."

~ Xander is something wrong? Where are you? What happened? ~

"Why do you always assume that something has gone wrong."

~ Your question doesn't deserve a come back! So, if the world as we know it isn't ending, what is the problem? ~

"No problem. Just checking on you. And yes, I could have been more considerate and looked up the time difference, but I just didn't think about it. And I am sorry about that, cause the last thing I want to do is to piss off the uber wicca that turned Andrew in a toad last month."

~ Xander you are staling. Why are you staling? Are you in trouble? Should I teleport there? ~

"No! I mean no, there is no need…..Willow are you alone in the room?"

~ Xan it's four in the morning here, who should be … never mind. Yes I am alone, why? ~

"As you know, after I finished the assignment, I took a couple of days off. And then something happened, only I am not sure what it is, and until I figured it out I don't want anyone else to know because they would make matters only more complicated and this is the last thing I need at the moment. Can I count on your silence, Willow?"

~ Of course you can, you know tha… oh my god! You have a girlfriend! ~

"If only it was this simple."

The silence on the other end of the phone was deafening, than she said in a low voice:

~ Is it a demon girlfriend? ~

"What? No, why do you always assume… look do you remember my last date in Sunnyhell?"

~ You mean the one with the demon girl? ~ asked Willow with mirth.

"That's the one. And you can stop snickering now. Do you remember what happened afterword?"

~ We saved you? ~

"After that, about what I said… did you do anything about it?"

~ About what? What are you talking about?! ~

"About, you know … the speech. The gay me up speech, the one I gave because I was tired to have the ladies in my life trying to kill me? Cause I have to tell you that I wasn't serious at the time, and if you did something about it I won't be mad at you at all. And…. Willow are you still there?"

~ Xander, did you find yourself a boyfriend? ~

"Don't try to change the subject missy. Did you gay me up, or not?" exclaimed Xander drawing the amused looks of a group of young girls sitting on a nearby porch. Seeing the rabid fascination that was blooming in some of those looks he quickly distanced himself from them.

~ Of course not! If I had, you would have felt the effects a lot sooner then this. So my newly gay friend, spill. Who is he? What does he do for a living? Is he cute? ~

"Willow hate to break it to you but I am not gay."

The laugh coming from Scotland was so loud that he had to move the phone several centimeters away from his ear.

~ 'No one is judging you. It's understandable-- Spike is strong and mysterious, and sort of compact, but well-muscled....' does this sound familiar to you? Or how about 'Can I have sex with Riley, too?' Face it my friend, you have been on the gay train for a long time, you just didn't found the right wagon to settle into. ~

"First of all I really don't want to dwell on the meaning of that last phrase, and second of all did you gals compare notes on everything I say?"

There was a long silence and then: ~ Nooo…~

"Try that one again, this time with a little more conviction."

~ Look the point is that only you can decide if you really like this boy. ~

"It's the same thing that he said, before telling me that I'm a hundred percent bi."

~ Are you feeling bi? ~

"I don't know… I never thought about him like that. Then I wake up and we are kissing, and then I freaked out and run out, and now he is in there probably doing some freaking out himself. You know, you are right. I should sort this thing out myself. Thanks. And don't tell anybody – you promised!"

~Xander wai…~

With a decisive movement of the hand, he closed the connection and started walking back toward his room. What he found there was not what he expected. Instead of the nervous man waiting for him, there on the bed lay a very relaxed and post-coital JD.

Xanders eyes grew impossibly large, "Oh, you did not just…"

JD's smirked at him and stretched in a very, very sexy manner, before going on all four and beginning a slow crawl toward the still motionless Watcher. "So Xan, no groceries?"

Xander closed his eye and tried to regain some semblance of control. When he looked at him again he was much calmer, "So shall we go?"

JD's smile froze for a moment and for the first time that day he seems uncertain of what was going on. Xander smirked internally, 'Welcome to my world.' He thought.

"Go where?" asked JD

"Well if I remember correctly you promised to show me the town and it's hundred wonders. Come on, get ready. I will wait for you by the car." He turned around and walked out of the door, without a second glance.

"Xander? Come on, you can't be serious! Xander? Xander!" shouted JD, but it was to late. Xander was already out of the room, the door tightly shut behind him.

JD stared in shock at the closed door, then stood up and begun to get ready for the day, all the while mumbling to himself.

"Xander Harris, you are an evil, evil man." Suddenly he stopped and looked in the general direction where his car was parked, with his smirk back, full force, "I like it, I like it very much."

The rest of the day was spent touring the city, looking at various local landmarks and listening to a bit of history of the place. Or trying to.

JD would start to explain some historical fact and without a fail a wandering hand would land on his arm, his back or lower still. When JD would turn around for a more intimate contact Xander would be on the other side of the room or street, looking interested in a painting or statue or whatever.

Pretty soon the tour become less about sight-seeing and more about illicit touches. The game of cat and mouse went on and on for the rest of the afternoon, the two exchanging their roles of hunter and huntee until they were both excited and eager to take the game to another level.

Later that evening they decided to make a stop at the dinner where they first met, for a warm meal before turning in for the night. Sara, the waitress that served them the first time around palled as soon as she saw that the one eyed maniac was back.

Xander cringed and offered a humble smile. JD sensing a potentially dangerous situations for his plans, sauntered toward the girl and whispered something into her ear. At first her eyes pooped open like in a cartoon, then her mouth formed a perfect 'o' and finally she giggled, blushing slightly.

JD turned and sent him a wink before inviting him with his hand to a rather secluded table of the dinner. Feeling rather uncomfortable, with the giggling girl still looking at him he followed the other and heavily set across from him.

"What the hell did you say to her?" he whispered.

"Huh?" asked JD, his eyes mirrors of innocence.

Xander looked at the others customers in the restaurant and bent forward and repeated the question: "I asked you what…"

He never managed to complete the sentence. As soon as he was in the striking area the ATF agent soared forward and planted a big kiss on his lips. Xander fell back on his seat and quickly checked his surroundings, but nobody seemed to be paying them attention.

Just then the waitress magically resurfaced and laid two streaming cups of coffee on the table.

"So what can I get you boys?" she asked with a smirk directed toward Xander. He didn't like this. He didn't like the shift of power that was happening here. The first time around, this little girl was scared of him, now she was openly baiting him.

It wasn't that he liked to scare people, but once, just once in his life he has been the scary one in the room, with the others trembling in his presence. Now everything was ruined. And all thanks to JD!

"I will take the steak with potato chips," said JD.

"Very well, and you sir?"

He tried to glare her into submission. He really did. But all that that accomplished was her widening smile and JD's loud snort. Whatever JD said to her it had completely ruined his reputation as bad guy.

Sighing he bowed his head in defeat and ordered the same as JD. As soon as she was out of earshot he whirled around and pinned JD with a murderous glare, "What the hell did you tell her?"

"What do you mean?" and here it was. The innocence was back full force.

"Don't play stupid. You know what I mean!" hissed Xander.

"Do I?"

"Yes you do! And you are gonna tell me, now!"

"What if I don't feel like it? What would you do?" asked JD, pretending to be stretching, while in reality he used the movement to plant his foot firmly on Xander chair, between his legs.

"What…I…What do you mean?" he babbled, his face taking on a nice red color.

"You will have to get it out of me latter, wouldn't you?" suggested JD, while rhythmically moving his foot.

Xander froze for a moment, then recognizing the game JD started, smirked back at him, "Oh I intend to. Have no worry, my interrogation technique is infallible. You can resist all you want, but in the end you will talk!"

This time it was the ATF agent that was out of words. The intensity of Xanders smirk coupled with the low and dangerous voice, kicked his imagination, not to mention his bodily responses into overdrive.

Sara brought their dinners and left, without the two noticing her presence. They were so engrossed into each other. They ate the dish without feeling its taste in record time and after having paid for it, leaving Sara a hefty tip, almost run out of the dinner.

The car they arrived in, was parked some distance from the dinner, distance that was spent walking in silence, to exited and lost in their own thoughts to manage a real conversation. As they neared the car a group of four individuals blocked their path.

"Hey boys, look what we have here! Two fags on their way to drill holes in each others asses!" snarled one of them, obviously the leader of the marry gang.

"You got to be fucking kidding me!" exclaimed Xander. "I can't believe this!"

"What is it, Xander?" asked JD calmly.

"It's the Xander curse. It works without fail. Every time I found someone that I like chances are that they will try to kill me or that they would end up hurt. What is it?" he screamed looking at the sky. "I thought that I stopped being everybody's butt monkey!"

"What kind of people do you normally date?" was astonished JD.

"Hey fags! We are talking to you!" roared one of the assailants, swinging a shot at Xander, who sidestepped it easily. He hadn't battled vampires for over six years without learning a thing or two.

"Son of a b…!" the assailant cursed. "Guys lets teach them a lesson!"

And the fight was on. Normally, when you take a fight four against two the end result is clear. But in this instance there were two highly trained fighters against four slightly inebriated tugs, whose only exercise consisted in fetching a beer during advertisements on TV.

Pretty soon the four tugs realized that even outnumbered the two were more than a match for them and, throwing insult over their shoulder, hail tailed it out of dodge.

"Well that was different," murmured JD.

"For me, not so much," said Xander, turning to JD, "You all right?"

"I'm fine, don't worry. You on the other hand are bleeding pretty bad. Should I call an ambulance?"

"Nah, it's nothing. One of them got lucky. Just give me a ride to my room, I have a first aid kit there."

JD nodded and unlocked the car. The ride back was slow and silent, but this was a different kind of silence then before. Xander was concentrating hard on not to stain the carpet with his blood, while unbeknown to him, JD was torturing himself with guilt.

Once at the hotel Xander quickly went to the bathroom and started cleaning the cut over his remaining eye with JD observing him from the doorstep.

"I'm sorry," whispered JD. "If I hadn't flirted with you in the dinner none of this would have happened."

Xander paused in his ministrations for a second and studied JDs reflection in the mirror. For all his bravado and bold statements, he was just a kid, like him. Insecure about where all this was going or what all this really was.

Putting the finishing touches to his patch up job, Xander turned around and smiled warmly to the fidgeting boy, "Hey as I remember it, I was the one that started the naughty touching not you. I am the one that should be sorry."

"But at the dinner…" started to say JD.

"At the dinner you just upped the stakes. Which remind me that I still own you an interrogation. Are you ready to confess your crimes?" asked Xander, predatorily zooming on the ATF agent.

JD breath caught in his lungs, as he took a step back. His heart beat sped up, as he slowly back tracked his steps into the room, Xander hot on his trail.

"Never!" he said stubbornly, his jaw set in a defiant frown.

"You sure about that? I know a lot of interesting techniques to make you talk." Xander stalked his prey further into the room.

"I am a trained ATF agent, I can withstand everything you throw at me."

"Oh is that a challenge? I like challenges. But you have forgotten an important fact."

"And what will that be?"

"No matter how trained you are, everybody has a breaking point."

Xander pounced and tackled JD to the bed, where he started kissing his passionately. Finally coming up for air, Xander looked at JDs wide eyes and smirked, "And I have all night long to bring you to your breaking point again and again and again."

The next day JD was woken up with soft, tender kisses. He stretched lazily and grimaced as he felt a slight pain in his lower back. Pretty soon the grimace transformed itself into a satisfied smirk as memories of last night begun to reemerge.

"Good morning, lover," he murmured as he returned the morning kiss.

"Good morning to you too," said Xander deepening the kiss. "I just wanted to let you know that I have to leave. My plane takes off in two hours."

JD frowned. "Do you really have to go?" and suggestively let the sheet fall down exposing his torso, while a wandering hand started to play with the nipples. "After all, you have a whole two hours to kill before the plane lifts up, and those things are known to be always late anyway."

Xander hungrily traced with his eye the path of those fingers from JD nipples to his mouth, then back again, this time not stopping at his chest but going lower until they disappeared under the sheet.

"You know what, you are absolutely right," said Xander, lowering his head and kissed JD with renewed passion.

In retrospect that last quickie wasn't such a great idea, thought Xander as he stared at the murderous glare of the same flight attendant that had 'served' his on his first trip back. Then remembering some of the highlights of the night, he smirked at her. It was worth it.

The flight attendant was taken aback for a while, then renewed her frown and moved on to the next passenger, murder in her eyes.

Now if he would just manage to survive the flight back…

The End of 'Nice meeting you again'

Next up - Long distance relationships.


	5. Long distance relationship

**DINNER MEETINGS 5 – LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP**

Author: Dampyria

Fandom: M7 / BtVS crossover

Summary: Isn't e-mail a wonderful thing? (part 2)

Rating: PG13

Paring: JD/Xander (slash)

Spoilers: BtVS (Post season 7 – Pre Comics season 8), M7 (none) ATF universe.

Disclaimer**: **I do not own Magnificent Seven or Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

-------------------------------------------------------------

From: Nick Furry

To: Hacker Chaser

Subject: Busted – again!!!

Hi! Somehow starting this letter is much more difficult that it was the previous ones. So many things changed…while others remain frighteningly the same. Like my tardiness to board planes and Klara. (Remember the scary attendant lady? Figured that, after spending so much time glaring at me, we should at least be on first name basis. By the way, if it ever comes up, my name is Philip.)

On the other hand the memory of our night made it all tolerable. Kind of hot. I almost joined the Mile High Club all by myself. (Does that even count as MHC?)

Anyway, no amount of glaring had prepared me for the welcome that I received at the airport. Willow ambushed me as soon as I cleared security and trying as I may to remain vague about what happened, she was like the dog with the proverbial bone.

Seriously what is with girls and gossip? Finally we agreed upon a partial disclosure, with the condition that it remains a secret between the two of us. For now the story is holding, but with this bunch it is only a matter of time.

I just returned home and was immediately assaulted by a horde of curious teenagers. It turns out, that I was in a suspiciously good mood, which according to them, is when very bad thing start happening to me. They say that they are worried about me, but I suspect that they are more curious then anything else. No matter the reason they are determined to find out who put the sappy grin on my face.

And when they do… I tremble at the thought… and if you have a little sense, you should too.

Yours truly

X

------------------------------------------------

From: Hacker Chaser

To: Nick Furry

Subject: Almost busted …

[remember the scary attendant lady? Figured that after she spent so much time glaring at me, we could just as well be on first name basis]

Should I be jealous? You just left and already you are chasing after skirts! Mom told me that I have to be careful when approached by handsome strangers. Should I have listened to her? :p

On a more serious note. You think that your friend's interrogation was bad? Try for a change six curious and overprotective ATF agent that spent all Monday doing nothing but probing me for answers regarding my week-end.

Buck was the worse, but that was no surprise. Having taken upon himself the duty to be my older brother it's kind of normal for him to poke his nose into my affairs. What was surprising was the interest that the others have shown in this. Even Chris hovered close by, listening in on the conversation! Chris!

Luckily I managed to divert their attention from the topic, or more accurately the topic was interrupted when we got a break on an important case. From there on it was all work, work, work. Never thought I would say that but thank you, Mr. Arm dealer guy.

At the end of the shift I kind of fled the office, only to be ambushed by Ezra on my way out. He was very polite and articulate as always. I can't be sure, with all the surplus adjectives he used, but I suspect that he kind of knows.

I have no clue how he found out. Maybe something from his work as an undercover agent. I think somewhere in his speech was an offer to talk. You would think that since we both speak English the communication would be fluid. But when a person uses twenty words, when the message could be easily conveyed in five or less, there is a real possibility for you to get lost in there.

For what I understood he said that he knows, is not gonna tell anybody and that if I wanted to talk he is there. See! One sentence, 30 seconds tops! There is no need for a ten minute rant about frogs and rainy seasons.

Anyway the boat seems to be holding on my end as well. For now. Tomorrow is another day. I just hope that Buck will give it a rest. Fat chance of that.

Well sorry for the rant.

Stay strong

JD

------------------------------------------------

From: Nick Furry

To: Hacker Chaser

Subject: Re: Almost busted …

Handsome stranger…. Oh I like it, but you forgot to add mysterious to the mix. Cause I am. Dark, mysterious stranger in the night… oh wait that is Batman! Well to think of it I am a little like him. A normal guy in the mist of super heroes. All I need now is a cap and a swirling mantel. Yeah that should do it.

Taking aside my uncanny beauty, you think that your guys are bad? Try for a change twenty plus hormonal teenagers with nothing better to do than to spy on me.

Now it's official. They had a meeting about it. No kidding. They send me to the grocery store and while I was gone they discussed my behavior since I got back and listed the possibilities of what might happened to put me in such a good mood. Can you believe it? I even found a close range camera in my room. Pointed at my computer no less. What is the world coming to…

Anyway… there is something that has been bothering me since we part our ways. And I am slowly turning into a girl for asking this but where is this relationship going? It's not like I dream of castles in the sky or anything. It's just that I want us to be on the same page, so we don't get hurt at the end, just because our pride stood in the way of an awkward five minute talk.

So first of all let's look at the facts. We live on two different continents and are able to see each other only once a month, if that. I don't know you but I would hate to loose you as a friend. So I would suggest the friends with benefits scenario, with the clause that if one of us finds a girl or boyfriend we drop the benefits. What do you say?

Wheew, that wasn't emasculation at all. Now if you don't mind I have to go find my balls.

Hope you write back

X

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From: Hacker Chaser

To: Nick Furry

Subject: Spy games

I hope that you found your balls. They are nice balls. I would personally miss them if you don't get them back.

Since you emasculated yourself for my benefit in the previous letter, I guess I should do the same for you. So here it goes: I completely agree with you.

Now passing to a more entertaining topic, our office has turned into a set of Mission impossible with Buck staring in the main role as a super spy.

As the week progressed the excitement over my mysterious week-end died down and our routine took over. Or so I thought, until I found Buck at my computer, trying to hack into my e-mail account. Hello hacker here! You would have to be a damn good code breaker to get into my personal mail. And Buck is everything but …

I guess he got tired of accidentally standing behind me as I checked my mail. Sadly for him, Chris happened to be in the room at the time of the hack that wasn't. Boy, I haven't seen that kind of fireworks in a while. Ever since … no, we decided that we will put that incident to rest and never, under no circumstances, ever speak of it again.

Sorry.

Anyway, that wasn't the worst part. One night I was sleeping when I thought that I heard someone talking. I opened my eyes and there he was, whispering sweet nothing in my ear. Man I almost decked him. He scared the shit out of me.

Turns out he read some kind of magazine that stated that when we are asleep our defenses are down and that it's easier to access our subconscious or some rot like that. It's unbelievable. But on the other hand this is Buck we are talking about.

One time he bought this love potion from a Chinese man and tried to slip it to Inez. He had been courting her for quite some time without any results so I guess he decided he needed some help.

Of course Inez wasn't impressed with it so we decided to play a little joke on him. Just as he slipped the drink in her glass I came along and accidentally drank from her glass. The next week was one of the most entertaining of my life.

I shamelessly flirted with him every time we were in the same room, commented how beautiful his eyes were and stuff like that. It was a riot. I just decided to tell him the whole truth when I saw him put the love potion in another glass and offer it to Inez, again.

Seems he figured that if it worked on me, it would work on Inez too. She drank the concoction and then stared with starry eyes in his direction. Buck was already smiling and moving toward her when she passed him like he wasn't even there and jumped right into my arms, kissing me like there is no tomorrow.

You should have seen his face. It was priceless. Poor Buck, I think that he still hasn't forgiven me. Of course the fact that we pretended to be dating for a whole week afterwards didn't help matters. LOL.

Hope to see you soon

Bye-bye

JD

p.s. A cape and the mantel? Does the outfit come with the tight suit? Cause if that is the case I would love to take it for a ride. You can be Robin and I will be Batman and together we will battle crime after which we will make passionate love all night long.

-----------------------------------------------------------

From: Nick Furry

To: Hacker Chaser

Subject: Re: Spy games

[I hope that you found your balls.]

It took a little searching but I finally found them hiding in a closet, trembling in fear and refusing to come back. It took hours and hours of convincing but finally I was able to get them back, on the condition that I never do something like that again.

[Since you emasculated yourself for my benefit in the previous letter, I guess I should do the same for you. So here it goes: I completely agree with you.]

That's it? After my three paragraphs you say one sentence and that's it? That's not fair! You are the one all grown up and stuff. You should have taken the initiative. But I guess what is done is done. Just remember, the next potentially emasculation topic that comes up, is all yours. Be warned.

[As the week progressed the excitement over my mysterious week-end died down and our routine lives took over.]

I am glad to hear that things are back to normal at your end. And yes, including Bucks behavior. He is your big bro. He is supposed to act like that, or at least this is how I imagine an older sibling must be, based on what I see with the Summers sisters.

What bothers me more is that love spell thingy. From my experience it is not wise to play with potions and stuff. I tried it once in high school and it had disastrous consequences. I still have nightmares about it. I would wake up in the middle of the night, covered in sweat and screaming like a girl. A really dreadful memory.

Moving along….

If on your end things went back to normal, here the incessant spy game was ended by an extraordinary event. Do you remember Faith, the wild girl I talked to you about?

I just found out that she is pregnant. Can you imagine? The girls are going crazy, already talking about making a nursery, buying gifts and choosing names. I don't know if this is better or worse from me being the center of attention, but I am kind of envious of Robin who isn't here right now. I am a sole man between a sea of girls in full extra-cute mode, trying in anyway possible to drag me into the madness with them.

I am drowning, help!

Desperate

X

p.s. for your p.s. – HEY, I'm Batman!! I came up with the idea. And role playing? With the belt, handcuffs, rope and all the other gadgets? Slightly kinky – but I like it.

----------------------------------------------------

From: Hacker Chaser

To: Nick Furry

Subject: Poor, poor Xander

Seems to me you are having a really difficult time. Hang in there and try no to loose something in all that estrogen. As I already stated I am quite fond of them so go out and chop some wood or something equally manly. :p

So is Faith also happy about the baby? From what little you told me she was a really wild girl and in your previous mail you talked a lot about the girls but never mentioned what Faith thought about all this.

Does she want the baby? What about Robin? Does he know he is going to be a father?

It seems that the whale thing was kind of sudden. A baby can be the mos

Have to go. Got phone call, Buck's been hurt. Talk later.

----------------------------

Tbc…

Next part – The clash of the titans

Takes place immediately after JDs mail. A case that involves both: the Scoobies and the ATF team.

Stay tuned…


	6. Clash of the titans part 1

**CLASH OF THE TITANS**

Author: Dampyria

Fandom: M7 / BtVS crossover

Summary: Buck gets hurt trying to help someone from the Watchers. (part 1)

Rating: PG13

Paring: JD/Xander (slash)

Spoilers: BtVS (Post season 7 – Pre Comics season 8), M7 (none - ATF universe)

Disclaimer**: **I do not own Magnificent Seven or Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

JD was just finishing up his letter to Xander when his mobile rang. Annoyed at the interruption he thought for a second not to answer the damn thing, but at the end his sense of duty won and he picked up the ringing annoyance.

As soon as he heard his bosses panicked voice on the other end, his mood changed in seconds, going from annoyance to worry to outright panic. Chris never panicked. He was their fierce leader that never backed down and laughed in the face of danger. Whatever had set him off must have been big and bad.

Listening carefully to the conversation he paled and then begun to tremble. Buck was on his way home as he heard sounds of a confrontation coming from one of the side alleys and went to check it out.

From there on the details were a little sketchy. All they knew was that shots were fired and that when the uniforms arrived at the scene they found one dead man and an unconscious Buck lying not far away. There was no sign of an assailant.

Buck and the victim were transported to the St. Mary hospital were they withheld Buck for further analysis.

This is all that JD needed to hear. Without saying good-bye he closed the cell phone and scrambled something on the mail he was writing, he then powered it down and raced down to the parking lot. He had to get to Buck. He had to see how he was doing. 'Oh God let him be all right,' he thought as he sped through the deserted roads.

The hospital was full of life. A contradiction if he ever heard one. The entrance hall was packed with patients waiting for their turn and nurses busily running around trying to tend to said patients. JD was about to stop one of them when he saw a solitary figure looming in one of the corners.

Recognizing Vic's solid frame he hurried over.

"What's going on? How is Buck? Is he going to be all right?" he fired in rapid succession.

Vic looked grim and just when JD started to fear the worse, he spoke: "He is unconscious. The doctors are doing some tests, but so far they didn't find anything that could explain his lack of awareness. They are going with poison on this one."

"Do they know what kind of poison?"

"They have no clue. Said they never saw anything like it and the worst part is that our mystery corpse was killed by the same poison. Buck is starting to show some of the same physical signs as our John Doe."

"God! What is his condition right now?" wanted to know JD.

"This is all I know. We should join the others for an update." Said Vin and started moving toward the elevator.

They found the rest of team seven occupying good part of a waiting room. As excepted Joshua and Nathan were sitting, talking among themselves. If JD had to guess, he would say that they were discussing the medical case.

Ezra was nervously playing with his cards, trying to keep himself occupied, so that he didn't have to think about what was going on in the next room, while Chris was angrily pacing up and down the room. As soon as he saw them he motioned them over.

"I assume that Vin has filled you in?" Chris asked JD.

"Yeah, is there any news?"

"Unfortunately no. The doctors don't have a clue on what is going on. All that they know is that the same thing that killed our presumed Mr. Wood is now slowly killing Buck. They say that he has more or less a couple of days before the damage done to his body is irreversible. So we have to move fast," said Chris.

"Nathan, you and Joshua stay here and keep an eye on Buck, while you wait for the autopsy report. Try to found out as much as possible from it. JD and Ezra will return to the office and found out anything they can on the dead guy. He didn't have a wallet on him but we found this card in his pocket," he said pulling a small card out of his jacket and handing it over to JD. "If we are lucky this is the identity of our mystery man, if not maybe this Robin guy will know who this is."

"Meanwhile I and Vin will return to the crime scene and found what the cops missed," concluded Chris.

"Are there any questions?" asked the leader of the team already moving toward the elevator, when JDs quiet voice stopped him. "Can I see the body?"

"Why?"

"I know someone that works for the NWC. If I gave him the description maybe we can get positive ID on the John Doe and info on what he was doing here and if he had any enemies."

"How well do you know this guy?" asked Chris taking out a Polaroid of the deceased.

"Well enough. We are friends." JD took the picture and took a shot of it with his phone before returning it to Chris.

"Okay then, make the call."

JD stepped away to call, while Joshua and Nathan went to the morgue to check on the progress of the autopsy. Chris instructed Vin to get the car while he waited on the news from JD.

Five minutes later the younger agent returned, with a grim face.

"I talked to my friend and he indentified the body as one Robin Wood, 32, senior researcher of the NWC. At the time of his death he was supposed to be researching some ancient myth in Dallas. Xander doesn't know what he was doing here and is not aware of any enemies that would wish harm to Mr. Wood."

"And there was nothing that would point to Wood having anything to do with poisons?"

"No nothing, but you can ask him yourself. He is going to be here in four hours," said JD frowning and biting his lip.

"What are you not telling me?" hissed Chris, irritated by the younger man indecisiveness.

"He mentioned something about their own investigation into the murder. He wasn't very clear on what he meant and when I tried to find out more he said that he had to go and hunged up. I tried to call back, but his phone is not connecting."

"Sure, fine, let's all join up and investigate! Unbelievable! JD found out what you can about those NWC guys. I want a full report when we meet up in two hours to compare notes."

With that said Chris left, leaving behind a very distressed looking JD and an intrigued Ezra.

"So this friend of yours, this Xander…" he tried to poke information out of his young companion.

"Let's go to work." JD interrupted him, marching toward the elevator.

The ride to the ATF HQ was spent in silence. Ezra was concentrating on his driving, throwing from time to time a curious look at the other. Not that JD noticed. He was staring out of the window the entire time, his thoughts in turmoil.

Now that he had a little time to himself he tried to organize the events of the night. His best friend, that occasionally acted like his older brother was slowly dying because of a mysterious poison, the same poison that killed Robin Wood, Xanders colleague and father of Faith's unborn child. Xander was coming to town to ID the body of his friend and run a parallel investigation to their own.

Xander sounded very un-Xander like on the phone. He was like a totally different person. At first he was very supportive and worried about Buck, then when he heard that the other victim was Robin Wood his tone of voice changed. He became aggressive in his questioning and secretive in his answers. JD knew the signs. Xander closed himself off and was withholding information that could potentially help save Bucks life.

Try as he may, he couldn't help himself but feel that this time, they were going to be on different sides of the barricade. If Buck died as result of this, JD would never forgive him or himself for that matter.

The car gently stopped. JD looked up confused until he realized that they already arrived. He opened the car door and was about to step out when a firm hand stopped him. JD looked at Ezra in confusion.

"Are you okay?" asked Ezra.

"I will be just as soon as we catch this guy." He tried to get out again but the hand on his elbow remained unmoving.

"What?" he asked, this time annoyed.

"Will you be able to work the case even if you'd have to go against your lover?"

"Buck is dying! What makes you think that I will not give a 120 percent and then some?"

"This is not what I meant. Will you be able to remain impartial even if you have to go against the one you love?" whispered Ezra.

The tone of voice in which the question was asked, made JD freeze in place. There was sadness and pain in there, but also a knowledge that comes from first hand experience. Without turning to look at him JD replied: "Even if it breaks my hart."

As soon as the words left his mouth the hand retreated and the two ATF investigators left the parking lot in silence. They had a mystery to solve and a killer to catch.

Xander was supervising the baby Slayers training as the call came. He motioned Kennedy to take his place and retreated to a more private location. Making sure that he was alone he smiled and flipped open the phone.

"Hey there beautiful," he purred into the phone.

"Hey Xander," came the quiet response, too quiet. It immediately sent off a warning bell in his brain.

"What's wrong?"

There was silence on the other end of the line and just as Xander was about to repeat the question JD spoke softly,: "Buck was hurt."

"Is he going to be alright? I mean is he …"

"No, not yet at least. He has been poisoned."

"I'm sorry. What do the doctors say?"

"They had never seen anything like that. They can't indentify the poison, not even make an educated guess."

"Do you know who poisoned him?"

"No, he heard a commotion in an alley and went to take a look. There was a fight going on and when he intervened the attacker slashed him with something that had a poisoned end. When the police come to the scene, the person that was being attacked was dead and Buck was unconscious. The doctors said that the same poison that is killing Buck was present in the victims' body only more of it."

JD stopped in his narration and collected his thoughts. The next part of the story was, in some ways the more difficult one.

"JD?" inquired Xander.

"The victim that died in the attack had on him a NWC card. He didn't have a wallet or any other ID, so we are not sure who is it? Maybe you could help us with it?"

Xander paused for a moment, feeling a weight settling in his stomach.

"What does it say on the card?"

"Robin Wood." JD heard a quick intake of air and then a myriad of whispered curses, or so he guessed, since most of them were in a language he couldn't even begin to categorize.

"As I said we don't know for sure. All we have is a business card that the deceased had on him. For all we know he could just be someone that was given the card. Are you up to identifying the victim?" JD voice was sympathetic and very professional.

"Yes."

"Okay, wait up, I am sending you a photo."

Xander closed his eye and for the first time in years, prayed. Prayed that the victim was just some unfortunate John Doe that somehow got a hold of Robins card, prayed that Faith hadn't lost the only man on earth that was able to ground her, prayed that the baby she was caring hadn't lost his father before he could even met him. He prayed and all the while the feeling of imminent doom was growing inside of him.

A few seconds latter the phone made a quiet ping and the last vestige of hope dissolved like snow in hell. Xander stared at the picture on his phone, his mind blank, refusing to acknowledge the evidence before him.

He must have been stuck like that for quite some time. The next thing he knew was that someone was shaking him with all too much force. He detached his eye from the screen and came face to face with a frantic Kennedy.

"Hey if you grab me like that Willow will get jealous," he joked. It was always the best strategy in situations like this, when your world, or the world of someone you know, has been turned upside down and inside out.

Kennedy gave him a strange look before shaking her head in exasperation, "Do I need to worry about whatever this is?"

"No, for now just resume the training. If something comes up I will let you know."

The Slayer gave him one last searching look, before turning around and joining the other girls leaving Xander alone with the phone still on in his hands. If before his head was void of any thought, now it decided to kick in full gear.

Without missing another beat he began to walk toward the fortified castle that was now their home while talking on the phone. "JD?"

"You okay Xan?" asked the agent.

"Yeah I am fine. Sorry about that, it was just a little bit of shock."

"So you can positively identify the man in the picture?"

"Yes, that was Robin Wood, one of our head researchers."

"I am sorry, Xander. I wouldn't be this pushy but the time is of essence here. Can you tell me anything about him? What was he doing here?"

"As I have already told you he was one of our researchers. Currently he was hunting down a book in Dallas. He was studying a myth of Darilafus and had just discovered that a rare old book regarding this subject was located in Dallas. I have no clue what was he doing up there."

"Okay, what about his enemies? Did he have any?"

"None that I am aware of," said Xander with a bitter smile. If only JD knew, he thought to himself.

"All right, I will need contact information for Faith and his friends and other members of your organization that knew him."

"Look JD I am sorry, but I can't do that."

"Xander…"

"No. I know that time is important and that is why I am flying down there as soon as possible with a team. You can't contact any other member of this organization, especially Faith. All the communication will go through me, or one of my team. We are starting a parallel investigation."

"Xander wait…" exclaimed JD, but it was too late. The connection has been already broken.

Xander was running up the stairs towards the west wing of the castle where their administrative offices were located. Turning left he didn't even pause to knock on the massive oak door before bursting in.

Giles was sitting behind an old mahogany desk going over what looked like financial data with one of the baby Watchers, when the door violently opened letting in a red faced Xander. The sudden intrusion startled the older man and his apprentice.

"For the love of God, Xander! There is an absolutely marvelous custom that the rest of modern world uses when they enter a room and it's called knocking," groaned Giles.

"I am sorry Giles, but there is something important that I have to discuss with you. And no, before you ask, it can't wait."

Giles was about to protest, when he saw the look of desperation in the younger mans eye. Turning to the Watcher in training he sent him away. Once the door was closed behind the youth Giles devoted his entire attention to the man before him.

"What's going on?"

"I got a call from a friend. Earlier this day a corpse was recovered in Denver. It didn't have any ID on him save from a business card from the NWC. He sent me a picture of the victim."

"Is it one of ours?"

Xander didn't say anything, just opened his phone and hand it over to Giles.

"Dear God," murmured Giles, starting to clean his glasses. "How did this happen? And what was Robin doing in Denver? Shouldn't he be in Dallas?"

"They don't know how this happened. They think that it was some kind of poison. My guess is that they come in contact with some fluid from a demon. But there is more. A cop was injured in the fight. He is still alive but the poison is killing him slowly. I told my friend that I am on my way there with a team."

"So your friend knows about the supernatural?"

"No, not really. We hung out together when I stopped in Denver on my way here. He is an ATF agent. The one that was hurt is a colleague of his."

Giles looked tiredly at Xander then picked up the phone on his desk and started to dial a number when the other interrupted him by yanking the phone out of his hands.

"What on earth…? We don't have time to waste. I need to call our contacts so that we can start with the damage control."

"I am well aware of that, but you have to listen to me first. Cutting them out of the investigation won't do us any good. Their team is like a family and when one of them is hurt they would do anything to make it better, even ignoring orders. Do you really think that removing them from the inquiry will stop them from noising around? Would we stop if Dawn or Willow got hurt?"

"Very well, what are you suggesting?"

Xander was a little taken aback by Giles willingness to listen to him, but he recovered quickly.

"I would suggest a joint investigation. At least on the paper. Have your contacts transport Robin to one of Rileys military labs for analysis, they should found a match on the thing that attacked Buck. In the mean time me, Willow and one of the older Slayers will run interference with the ATF team. We will let them do their thing, while at same time, we will be running our own investigation. When we find the demon we finish it and burry the entire case."

"I must say this is a quite reasonable plan. Do you have any more suggestions?" asked Giles intrigued.

"I think that we shouldn't tell Faith or anyone else about what happened. We should keep this as confined as possible."

Giles was about to interrupt him, but Xander didn't give him a chance. "No, hear me out. Faith just found out that she is going to be a mother. She is very emotional at the moment and prone to do something risky and stupid that will endanger not only her but also her unborn child. Let me clean up this mess and then I will tell her personally, and will assume all the responsibilities for keeping it from her."

The older man studied Xander for a moment and then nodded.

"Very well. This is now officially your mission. Take Willow and Kennedy with you as a support group. I am going to arrange the private jet, it will be faster then the regular flights."

"Yes sir!" he mock saluted and dashed toward the door.

"And Xander," called Giles after him. "Stay safe. Faith isn't the only one that let's feeling get in the way. I know that this is going to be a very emotional case for all of us, but please, try to keep out of harms way."

"Always do," said Xander and disappeared out of the door, leaving behind a worried Watcher.

TBC in part two… Xander arrives in Denver and has his first brush with team seven and more importantly with Chris. Stay tuned…


	7. Clash of the titans part 2

**CLASH OF THE TITANS 2**

Author: Dampyria

Fandom: M7 / BtVS crossover

Summary: Buck gets hurt trying to help someone from the Watchers. (part 2)

Rating: PG13

Paring: JD/Xander (slash)

Spoilers: BtVS (Post season 7 – Pre Comics season 8), M7 (ATF universe)

Disclaimer**: **I do not own Magnificent Seven or Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

My internet connection broke so I wasn't able to post a chapter the previous week. To make up for it here is the second part.

Man this should have been a short 3 part story. I don't know what is wrong with me. I seem to be unable to produce short stories; they just go on and on and on.

JD slammed the drawer closed violently. As much as he searched the net for answers, for the first time in his life, the net remained silent. He found Robin Wood all right, but apart of his school records and employment history he couldn't find out anything more.

Getting frustrated he tried to check out Xander. Same thing. School, employment, other than that his life was a black hole. The only new thing that he found out about his friend was his middle name – LaVelle. At least now he knew why Xander was hiding it from him.

He leaned back on his chair and closed his eyes. What was Xander involved in? He had never seen this kind of security. Not even the FBI or the CIA had that kind of on-line protection. Not that he ever tried to hack in one of those.

He looked at the watch on his wrist and swore. His time was almost up and he didn't have anything to show for it. He was letting the team down, worse of all he was letting Buck down. His eyes stung from unshed tears of frustration and desperation. Buck was running out of time and he couldn't find anything to help him.

"Are you feeling quite all right Mr. Dunne?" come a southerner drawl from a nearby desk.

"Am I all right? Am I all right! No I'm not all right. I spent the last two hours searching for information and I haven't found anything, nul, zip, nada, niente!! I always find something. It may be unimportant, but I always find some tidbit of info that the others missed! Who the hell are these people?" hissed JD slamming his hands on the surface of the desk, causing his half empty can to stager and fall to the ground, spilling the remaining drink. "Damn it!"

"There is no need for violence, Mr. Dunne. I too failed to acquire any information regarding the organization in general and Mr. Wood in particular," he tried to pacify his young friend.

"It's not the same! This," he said, pointing to the computer. "is my thing! I should be able to crack that stupid firewall."

"I am sure you made the utmost effort to retreat the information Mr. Dunne, but I am afraid that our time is running out. We should gather all that we learned and go meet our fearless leader in the hospital."

"Yeah, let's go. I tried every trick in the book that I had anyway," exhaled JD, lowering his head and collecting his papers before heading to the door. Ezra followed him with the same dejected pose, hoping to hell that the others had more success with their end of the investigation.

Hope that was downtrodden as soon as the elevators door opened to Chris' angry shouts.

"How the hell could you let this happen?!" he roared making the doctor pale more than he already was.

"Calm down Chris. Let the good man explain what happened," Vin interjected, stepping between the two and putting a calming hand on Chris' shoulder.

The doctor relaxed a little that is until the full force of the ATF leader glare hit him. He looked around himself in search of help but all he got were the intense looks of the remaining three agents. There will be no help for him on that end. If Larabee decided he wasn't satisfied by his answer and wanted to kill him slowly and painfully nobody is going to step in his way.

"What is going on here?" asked a new voice. A ray of hope begun to bloom in the doctors heart but was squashed the next moment when he recognized the last two members of team seven. He was so dead!

"The good doctor here lost the body of our vic and he was just going to explain how that happened, weren't you?"

"Yes, yes of course. Soon after you left this afternoon I got a call from our mortician Mr. Camier, that a gentleman wanted to retrieve the body of one Robin Wood from the morgue."

"And you just let him?" Nathan asked incredulous of what he was hearing.

"Of course not, as you can imagine I hurried down to check what all this nonsense was about. When I got there, a gentleman from a military was waiting for me, a certain colonel Riley Finn. He showed me a special order to release the deceased in his care," he shuffled through his packets, producing a crumpled piece of paper and handed it over to Chris.

"Here. Now if you would excuse me, I have patients to attend to." Very slowly, no he wasn't running, he departed from the group while they were intent on studding the document.

Once Chris read the document through, he handed it over to JD. "Found out this Finns contact number and then try to sniff out who is he working for and why is he so interested in this case."

"How is Buck doing?" asked JD.

"He is still in coma. His vital signs are stable for the moment, but his body is slowly but surely degenerating at the predicted rate. If we don't find an antidote soon his condition will become irreversible, I am afraid." Nathan filled them in.

JD nodded and went to find a computer with an internet connection. The others gathered in a small waiting room and started comparing information's.

"The crime scene is an isolated back alley near the residential area. It isn't situated in a particularly bad neighborhood and at the time of the attack there were several people around the area. We interview them all, but unfortunately nobody saw anything."

Chris stopped talking and let Vin take the lead: "I checked out the area. The alley has a dead end and excluded the possibility that the perpetrator knows how to fly, he had to leave through the same way he came in. Considering the amount of blood on the scene our unsub must have been covered in it. I'd say that it's almost impossible for people not to have noticed something."

"There was some strange orange substance left at the scene. We scooped some of it and sent it to our lab. Nathan?"

"As I just said there is no change in Buck condition. The doctors found orange goo in his wound; I'm guessing it's the same substance that you found on the crime scene. They send it to toxicology. We are still waiting on the results."

"What about the body, did they get something out of it?" wanted to know Chris.

"Unfortunately they took the body before they started the autopsy. So nothing on that end."

"Anything else?" asked Chris.

"The wounds appear to be made by three parallel long curved blades. The attacked must have had some kind of contraption on him that allowed him to leave this kind of marks. It must look something like the claws that Wolverine has," added Josiah.

"From bad to worse," murmured Chris, then turning to Ezra. "What about the NWC?"

"We weren't able to ascertain nothing conclusive. The New Watchers council is a fairly new company, but they were born from an old British enterprise. They were a very old, powerful and mysterious congregation.

Nobody knew exactly what they were doing but they were very well connected politically and militarily. Then, out of nowhere, their HQ was blown up a couple of years ago during an important meeting. Most of the executives of the company were killed in the blast.

A year later a new company surges from their ashes, the NWC. As their primary source of income are listed a string of schools for talented youth. Then we have secondary activity such as archeology, research of folklore and myths, translations, charity institutions in Africa, Russia and Asia… well you get the idea."

"And Robin Wood was a researcher there?"

"Yes and no. His main occupation was that of headmaster of one of the schools and was doubling up as a researcher.

His mother died suddenly when he was young. He spends his youth with a family friend, he is a good student and after high school he goes to the university in Philadelphia where he graduates in English literature and medieval history.

After that he spends the next seven years as a teacher at the local high school until a spot opens in Sunnydale high school as a headmaster, where he remains until the whole town is sunk into the ground.

Is in fact one of the last ones that leaves the city a little before the sinking, with a group of people. Interestingly enough all of the leaders of the NWC were on that bus. Then he roams around a bit until he settles down in England as the headmaster," concluded Ezra just as Chris' phone rang.

"Yes?" barked Chris and after listening for a bit left the room.

The other members of the group were left in the waiting room, wondering what all that was about. Soon after the bosses departure JD resurfaced with a deep frown on his face.

"Where is Chris?" he asked.

"He left after receiving a call." Vin informed him.

"That was me. I gave him the number of that Finn guy, must be talking to him."

"What did you found out?" inquired Nathan.

"Two words – top secret. All that I found was blacked out documents. It's freaky! I never saw anything like this. Then again this whole case is like this. Damn it!!" he screamed kicking a near-by chair, drawing the attention of a passing nurse.

"Calm down. We are going to figure this out. We always do," tried to reassure him Josiah.

"Calm down? Buck is dying and everywhere we turn we find closed doors. We won't be able to save him. He…he will die." He whispered at the end and slumbered on a chair like all the fight has been drawn out of him.

"We will find something. I promise," said Nathan, his voice low and not sounding at all convinced of his own words. And neither were the others. Solving a case in a day was hard, solving one when all the doors are locked for them was impossible and worse of all the doctors seems to be still unable to indentify or counteract the poison.

The only hope that they had was that the assassin had an antidote with him.

JD was still sitting on the chair with his head bowed in dejection when the door to the room slammed open and shut. Startled he looked up in time to see Chris storm in with a furious expression on his face.

"God damn military and their secrets!!" he spat, before starting pacing. The others were smart enough not to ask questions.

After more than five minutes Chris calmed down enough to retell his conversation with Riley Finn.

"…. And then he says that the lead investigator on this case will contact us shortly and that we are to follow his directions."

"And who, pray tell, is this investigator?" wanted to know Ezra.

"That would be me," said a new voice. As one the six men turned toward the new arrival. What they saw surprised them. The man in the door was young, much too young to be in charge of this kind of investigation. Quickly the surprise turned into anger.

Chris surged forward and slammed the young wanna be against a glass wall: "Are you kidding me? You are not even old enough to shave. Is this a joke? My best friend is in a hospital bed, dying and they send a kid to be the lead investigator?"

Josiah and Vin grabbed Chris and dragged him away from the stranger. The letter didn't appear to be shaken from the ordeal. He calmly rearranged his clothes and stepped away from the wall.

"Believe me, I understand how you are feeling. I have been there more times that I care to count, but you have to accept the fact that I was put in this position for a reason. I may not be old enough to shave, but this is a special case that needs to be handled in a special manner and apparently I am the man for the job."

"I can't believe this! You may have been given this position, but the investigation is still ours. I won't let Buck die because they put a child in charge!"

"You may be surprised, but I agree." said the stranger.

"What?" Chris whirled around to face the child. Was he mocking him?

"I understand your feelings and even before coming here I knew that you would not relinquish your job as a lead on this. So I will make you a deal. The investigation is still yours under the condition that you keep me informed of all the progresses."

Chris studied the kid for a moment searching his face for any sigh that will tell him what this was all about. What he found was a scared but open and sincere face. There was something here that he was missing. Someone was playing a game to which he still didn't know the rules. Yet! Deciding that he had more important things to do at the moment he let it go.

"What about the body? Can we have it back?"

"That will be a no. The military scientists are still studding it," he said, his face becoming suddenly grim.

"This is unacceptable!" begun shouting Chris, but the stranger interrupted him with a shout of his own: "No it's not! The military has a much better chance to find out the antidote then the hospital. They have better equipment and more importantly knowledge. If you think that his is easy on me, or that I don't care about the results you are wrong!"

Xander drew himself back and took a calming breath before continuing: "Robin Wood was a good man and a valuable colleague. His girlfriend just found out that she is pregnant; she didn't even have the time to tell him the good news. So don't think for a moment that I won't do anything in my power to avenge his death."

The room fell silent after that until a quiet voice asked: "How is Faith holding up?"

Xander turned to JD and tiredly run a hand through his hair: "She still doesn't know. I didn't want her to fly down here and do something stupid or dangerous for herself and the baby."

"You know him?" Chris glared at JD with glacial eyes.

"He is my contact in the NWC," confirmed JD.

"He didn't know that I would take over the investigation," Xander interjected before another fight broke out. He had seen the look that Chris directed at the young agent and didn't like it one bit.

The tension in the room was broken by the opening of the door and by the entrance of a young redhead girl.

"How it went?" asked Xander. They stared at each other for a while, like they were having a secret conversation, then he nodded his head, which was curious seeing as he was the one to ask the question, and as one they turned to Chris.

"We injected Mr. Wilmington with a special broad spectrum antibiotic. For the time being it seems to be slowing down the poison, giving us time to find a proper antidote."

"What the hell are you talking about? Who gave you the permission to administer him drugs?" shouted Chris moving menacingly toward Willow only to be stopped halfway by Xanders frame.

The two were glaring at each other with the all that they have, neither willing to back down.

Willow observed the testosterone show for a while, wondering when and how her Xander shaped friend learned to appear so menacing and manly, then having had enough of the macho show, she stepped between them: "Okay you two, either back down or find yourself a room."

JD had a brief flash back of his boss and Xander going at it and found it hilarious to the point that he was hard pressed not to burst out laughing despite the situation. Then he caught sight of the picture they made, both tall and strong, standing on opposite sides and both determined not to give way.

His mirth disappeared immediately replaced by a fast growing arousal, complete with widening eyes and dry throat and mouth. In an attempt to keep his lips from gluing together he moistened them. Suddenly aware of the fact that he was surrounded by highly observant investigators he cast a quick glance around the room. Luckily for him the others were all to engrossed in the happenings to notice little old JD, unless you count the little pixie redhead that send him a wicked grin before concentrating once again on the two man.

"We had the permission of the hospital administration. If you'd like you can check with them. Now as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, the new antibiotic is slowing down the poison, so if you want to talk to your friend about what happened earlier this day I suggest that you do so now, before his condition worsens again."

"Buck's awake?"

"I think I just said so, didn't I? Just don't strain him to…much." He finished the sentence to the mostly empty room. "Well that went well." She commented. "What do you think?" she asked turning to Xander.

"It could have gone better, but it also could have gone much, much worse. What did you found out about the demon we are hunting?"

"I got a fairly good description of the attacker from Buck. Now all we have to do is check the database and we should find out what it is and how to kill it, hopefully there will be an antidote listed as well."

"And Buck?" wanted to know Xander.

"He is stable for the moment. The magic enhanced medicine worked like, well magic. It stopped the poison from spreading, for now at least. I estimated that we have gained from two to three days. And before you ask … no, he won't remember his attacker."

"Good," he sighed then noticing the look on Willows face asked: "What?"

"Sometimes I think that we are turning into what we despised all those years."

"Willow I know that it's difficult…"

"Difficult? I just erased a mans' memory, which is in the top ten things of bad magic! Do you have any idea, how dirty I feel?"

"It was necessary. We can't risk them finding out the truth. It will put them in unnecessary danger and it will hinder our movements, preventing us from finding the perpetrator in time to save their friend."

"There is always the lab," she murmured.

"Yes and looking at their success rate, that ATF agent is as good as dead. No, our best chance to help him is to find the source of the poison and fast, our friend doesn't have much time left."

"And neither does Faith," capitulated Willow. "We have to solve this before she finds out that Robin is dead. So, what are the orders, boss?" smirked Willow.

"You find out where he was staying here. Use a locator or what not. In the mean-time I will hunt for clues at the crime scene and go through the police reports. Maybe there is something that we can use."

"What about Kennedy?"

"She will go with you."

"But…"

"No buts. It's better this way. You will have back up while you concentrate in your search. I know how you get while you work magic, a grenade could go of right next to you and you wouldn't notice. As for me, I will have one of the cities finest to accompany me there, after all this is their case."

"Be careful," whispered Willow, hugging him tightly.

"You to," said Xander returning the hug. "One more thing, don't let Kennedy meet the ATF team or the cops. She will be our wild card, should something happen.

"I am sure she will be thrilled with that," Willow smirked.

"Try say it one more time Willow, this time without the sarcasm. Damn, I still hurt from the last work-out she pulled me through."

"I kind of enjoyed it," confessed Willow.

"You are bad bad girl! Real bad!" he said with a fond smile on his face. "Well we better go. You have to check on the 'lab' for any progress while I have a date with a dark and dung alley. See you later."

END OF PART - 2 – Hopefully there will be some X/J angst and love in the 3rd chapter. Fingers crossed.


	8. Clash of the titans part 3

**CLASH OF THE TITANS 3**

Author: Dampyria

Fandom: M7 / BtVS crossover

Summary: Buck gets hurt trying to help someone from the Watchers. (part 3)

Rating: PG13

Paring: JD/Xander (slash)

Spoilers: BtVS (Post season 7 – Pre Comics season 8), M7 (ATF universe)

Disclaimer**: **I do not own Magnificent Seven or Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Xander walked the corridor of the hospital like he owned the place, a bluff that served him well in the past. Like that time with Angelus in the hospital. He just hoped that he will be able to hold the confidence and bravado in place, for he was sure that at the minimal sign of weakness Chris will pounce on him like a starving fledge.

He could do this. It's not like he didn't face much more dangerous creature on a daily bases. Vampires, demons, succubus….he shuddered at the idea of the last one… so not going there, then why did he want to throw his hands up in surrender every time he met Chris' icy stare? If Willow hadn't interfered in their 'talk' earlier he would had crumbled under those blue eyes.

Sighing, he stalled himself in front of Buck's room, taking a moment to pull himself together before knocking on the closed door and entering without an invitation.

He found the team gathered around their friend's bed. When they heard someone knocking at the door their whole attention shifted from the prom form on the bed to Xander. 'Oh yeah!' he thought. 'Second round, here we come.'

Deciding to ignore the overprotective bunch he concentrated his attention to the lone figure on the bed.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Like something have chewed me over and then spit me out and to top it all I can't remember a single thing!"

"It's not your fault. We think that the memory loss can be a side affect of the poison. So just relax and the memories should come back slowly on their own."

"And just what other side effects can he expect from the poison?" asked Chris harshly. He didn't like being kept in the dark and with this bunch he felt like they were given the round about. It just gritted on his nerves. Big time!

"You should have asked Willow, she is the smart one."

Chris was about to tear him another one when a quiet voice stopped him.

"Where is Willow?" asked JD, who was uncharacteristically silent the entire time. The others had attributed it to the shock of his best friends condition, but now they begun to see something else.

JD was looking at the stranger with big, trusty, hopeful eyes, the kind of eyes that he normally reserved for them. And on the other side of the room, Xander was returning the look with a sad, but determined eye.

"Willow went back to the lab, to help out with Robin's autopsy. She will contact me as soon as she learns something. In the mean time I would like to take a look at the place where the attack happened."

"Hey wait up, pretty boy. I still have questions!" exclaimed Buck, feeling a little bit left out of the conversation. Damn it, he was the patient after all and the others were just ignoring him.

"Pretty?" inquired Xander.

"Yes well, I am surprised that you didn't object to the boy part, like someone else in this room does all the time," he smirked.

"Hey!" protested JD. "I will have you know that he is younger then me."

The other two exchanged a look and then turned to smirk at the ruffled youth, making him blush.

"See what I mean?" smiled Buck before turning serious once again. "So who exactly are you?"

"I am working in the same place as Robin Wood, the man that you tried to save in that alley. We are here to help with the investigation."

"I am sorry I couldn't save your friend," murmured Buck.

"You don't have to be sorry. At the time you got there he was as good as dead. What you did was very brave. Not many people will risk their life for a stranger and for that I thank you from the bottom of my heart," declared Xander, raising his right hand to his chest. "I promise you that I, we will do anything in out power to find the antidote."

Buck nodded, than looked Xander straight in the eye, "What are my chances if the antidote is not found?

Xander studied the man before him, debating on what to tell him. Buck must have caught on, on that because his next words were firm and resolute, "The truth."

"The poison in your blood is lethal. If the lab doesn't find the antidote, or we don't find the perpetrator…..."

"Xander!" cried out JD, shocked at his lover's bluntness.

"I'm sorry JD, but he has to know the truth." He told JD, than turned back to the patient. "The lab will eventually find the cure, but I am not sure if they can do it in time to save you, so our best chance to un-poison you, is to find the perp."

"What about the injection that woke me up from the coma in the first place?" inquired Buck.

"I am afraid that, that was a once only deal. It won't work a second time. When the magic liquid that is keeping the poison in check fails, you will go back to a coma and shortly after that you will die. That is if we don't find a cure.

But just to be on the safe side maybe you should get your affairs in order. Just on the off chance that we don't find the guy that did this off course."

"Of course," snorted Buck.

"Buck, don't do this! We will find that guy and after he hands the antidote over we will make him sorry to be alive!" interjected JD.

"He is right. We will do anything humanly and inhumanly possible to save you. You have my word," vowed Xander. "So now about that crime scene…"

"I can show you," offered JD, but Chris stopped him right there and then.

"No JD you will stay with Buck. Josiah, you will accompany our guest to the crime scene. We don't want to loose him. The others are with me. We have an investigation to run. JD, call me at the slightest change. Buck hung in there!"

"You won't get rid of me that easily."

Chris nodded at his oldest friend and after that stormed out of the room with the others in tow.

"As boss-man said, hang in there," said Xander, before turning to JD, "You too. I will ring you as soon as I have anything. Stay safe and may the force be with you."

"Oh God another sci-fi geek! Wasn't I punished enough?" exclaimed Buck looking at the ceiling.

"Hey!" came the replay in stereo.

"Mr. Sanchez, I think we should go take a look at that alley."

"That we should," agreed Josiah, leading the way out of the hospital.

Xander threw an impatient look at the driver of the car. He hadn't uttered a single word since they left the hospital. Not one single word! The big guy was just sitting there driving silently, like Xander wasn't even there.

Xander shifted in his seat impatiently. Another five minutes and he was gonna address him, just a little longer and if there was not a conversation going on he was starting one.

….

….

"Okay that's it! What's with the silent treatment? I know for a fact that the boss-man paired you with me so that you can work your profiler magic. So what is it with the lack of, you know, talking and grilling? Not that I am complaining or anything."

"There are more ways to judge a man worth then just by his words. Words can be faked but the body is always true to peoples intentions."

"Yeah, yeah non verbal communication. I get it. But how will you know if I am telling the truth if you don't ask me any questions?"

"I am not interested in your intentions in this case, I'm interested in you."

"Whoa man, isn't it a little soon to be throwing this kind of affirmations? We just barely met."

Josiah just looked at him with his profound eyes and said nothing. The scrutiny lasted less then five seconds and yet Xander had a feeling that the man had read him like an open book.

"That was intense," he remarked. "I feel like you know me from the inside out. Care to return the favor and maybe tell me something about you? How about we start with your favorite color?"

"Pink."

Xander blinked, "Pink? Kind of unusual color for a guy."

"Is it?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"I think… Because… you know what, you win. Let's just be silent."

Xander couldn't be sure, but he could swear that the big guy smirked at him and somehow that freaked him out more then Chris' glares. The guy was scary.

Ten excruciating minutes later Josiah stopped the car in a busy commercial district

with small stores all over the place. Of course at the time of the attack most of

the stores would have been closed and there would be a lot less people on the streets.

But still there was a fair chance that somebody saw something, even if they denied it.

Xander first concentrated on the dark alley. It was your typical closed street, with only

one way out. Trying to ignore the blood that still adorned the ground he walked to the

far end of the street and run a hand over the surface of the wall.

There were some scrapings there, but nothing recent. Xander took a step back to have

a better look and that's when he saw it. A good two meters from the ground run two

sets of parallel claw marks.

"Mr. Sanchez? Can you give me a hand with something," asked Xander before

turning around and finding Josiah right behind him. Without thinking he shifted his

stance, ready to strike before even realizing who it was that was standing in front of

him.

"Shit. Would you please make a sound before you creep behind someone on a crime

scene?"

"I am sorry to have startled you."

"Are you? Because from where I'm standing you are just testing me. Look, I

understand that you are doing your job and all, but startling me here is not a good way

to go about it. I could have hurt you."

"I see. In that case I apologize. Now Mr. Harris, how can I help you?"

"First of all, please call me Xander. Mr. Harris just freaks me out," he said, then rummaging through his pockets he dug out a small digital camera and pushed it in the other mans hands.

"And second, can you take a picture of me so that those marks are visible in the photo?"

"You are not suggesting that the criminal climbed out of this alley?"

"Seen weirder things. Besides even if the guy didn't climb out of here those marks are fresh. It could mean something."

Josiah didn't seem convinced, but none the less readied the camera and then waited for the other man to get in position. Once they took several photos of the marks and the alley Xander decided he wanted a better view of the lay out of the alley.

Without waiting for Josiah, he entered the building on his left and run up the stairs until he reached the roof. Once there he took a good look around searching for some kind of clue.

Climbing from one roof to the other he checked for any disturbances on the ground but found nothing. Than he decided to take a better look at the edge of the roof facing the alley where the attacker supposedly climbed up and sure as hell there they were, the same claw marks that he noticed earlier in the alley.

He examined them briefly to make sure that they were the same then he extracted his cell and pressed speed dial 2.

"Hey Wills. How is it going on your end of the investigation?"

'The techs are working around the clock, but so far it doesn't look good,' came the worried replay.

"What about our bad guy?"

'Here we had more luck. We narrowed down the list of suspects to a dozen species.'

"Will it help you some if I told you that the demon has four claws on each hand?"

'Xander we already knew that.'

"Did you also know that when he is not killing people with them he uses them as aid to climb walls?"

'No, that narrows down the list of suspects. Anything else?'

"Well the first mark was two meters from the ground. So the attacker shouldn't be too big. Does that help?"

'Yes, yes with the new parameters that you have given me we can eliminate the Gronmdas, the Franthrans and the Suternons… let's see …. The Balduntes will also have to go so do the Trizhirls. Hmmm, anything else?'

"Nope, not right now. I am sending you a photo of the marks and I will scrape some of the material found in the niches. Maybe further analysis can show us something new. Talk to you later."

'Bye.'

Closing the connection he took a photo of the mark and was in the process of sending it to Willow when a voice interrupted him.

"I thought that you wanted to use the camera. With the higher resolution and all."

Without turning he finished sending the picture, "Yes but for now this should do." He closed the phone and extended the hand to take the camera that was dangling from Josiah's hand only to see it disappear from his visual field.

Looking up he was met with the profilers studious gaze. Xander blinked at him and then his eye settled on his hand, "The camera?"

"Mr. Harris…"

"Xander."

"Xander, we are at a crime scene that took the life of your friend and got a cop in the hospital. The protocol and common sense state that you shouldn't wander around alone. That's why cops always work in pair."

"I am not a cop," replayed Xander, going for the camera a second time.

"Reason more why you shouldn't walk around on your own," insisted Josiah taking a step back.

"We are in the middle of the day and the streets are full of people, there…"

Xander didn't have the time to finish the sentence. Suddenly Josiah moved from his position with lightening speed and faked an attack. Not being prepared for the assault Xander reacted like any other Sunnydale survivor would, he counterattacked.

Seconds later found Josiah on his back with Xander immobilizing him with his body.

"There is no one here," managed to say Josiah.

"And if I read this situation correctly you are the one that needs help here not me."

"You are to sure of yourself, it will be your downfall."

Xander stood up and helped Josiah to his feet, "One day maybe, but in the meantime it serves me well."

"You are a very strange man, Mr. Harris, I mean Xander."

"I lived a very strange life. You wouldn't believe how many times," he started to say, but then he remembered who he was talking to and stopped himself. "…never mind. So what do you say we take this picture and get back to the hospital?"

"Very well, Xander."

"You know when you said that you sounded very much like a friend of mine. Freaky if you consider that he is English."

"Do I?"

"Totally, as would the young say. Except he would be cleaning his glasses right about now," smirked Xander snapping the picture from the camera that he retrieved from the profiler and turned around, "Okay we are done. Let's hit the road."

The road back was, much like before, a silent one, but for very different reasons. While Xander was trying to piece together the clues of the case, Josiah was trying to piece together him.

The young man sitting next to him was a very puzzling person. He went from an easy going to dangerous, from leader to follower, from childish to mature. He suspected that even the one eyed man didn't know where he stood and was still trying to find his place in the world. He suspected also that someone must have had abused the young man when he was still a child, probably a relative, possibly a parent. But that didn't help him in the slightest.

Josiah considered what he was going to say to Chris when he updated him on the situation. He respected the team leader, but not for that he ignored his faults. Right now, with his friends' life on the line, he wasn't thinking very clearly and if he suspected that Xander wasn't on the level he dreaded his reaction.

On the other hand, his professional opinion was that Xander was really intent on helping Buck. It was clear from his actions, from the way he spoke and this is all he was going to tell Chris, praying that he won't be asked for more.

Throwing a quick look at the other man in the vehicle another question arose in his mind. What kind of relationship existed between this man and their young hacker? They were friends that much was obvious, but there was something more there, something just below the surface that he couldn't put his finger on.

He slowed down the car and turned toward the hospitals underground parking lot. As soon as the car stopped Xander jumped out and almost run to the elevators.

"Make your call in peace, I will be waiting in Bucks room," he shouted over his shoulder before disappearing behind the metal doors.

Xanders ride up was slow, to slow for him. With every passing second he was becoming more and more nervous. For the first time since his arrival he was gonna be alone with JD and he didn't have the faintest idea of what to tell him.

Somehow he doubted that the 'Hi I am a demon hunter and your friend was poisoned by a as of yet unknown demon.' wasn't going to go down really well.

But he needn't have to worry. As he was approaching Bucks' room the door suddenly burst open and a very distressed looking JD run out.

"Nurse! Nurse!" he shouted, running in near blind panic toward the nurse's station.

One of the nurses there broke from the group and approached JD with quick steps, "What is it, JD?"

"Buck, Buck he won't wake up, he just won't wake up. Help?"

The nurse entered to room to check up on the patient with JD hot on her hills and Xander not far behind.

When Xander entered the room the nurse was checking his pulse and pupils reactions.

"How is he? What happened?" asked JD panicked.

"Please Mr. Dunne. All I can say is that your friend is stable. On my way here I have paged the doctor, he should be here shortly and give you more information on his condition."

"But you know something! Tell me, please," said JD hitting her with all the power that his puppy eyes could manage.

"I am sorry, but I am not qualified to make diagnosis," tried to resist the nurse. Luckily for her the doctor entered at that moment sparing her from another round of begging puppy eyes.

"What seems to be the problem?" he asked.

"The patient is non responsive to light but his pulse is steady," reported the nurse dutifully.

"Okay I will have to conduct an exam. Gentlemen if you would please leave the room…"

"I am staying right here!" exclaimed JD stubbornly. "I am not moving an inch until I know what is wrong with Buck."

Before the doctor could replay, Xander intervened with a calming hand on JD's shoulder, "JD come on let's get some fresh air and in the mean time the doctor would check Buck over."

JD still didn't seem convinced so Xander added, "I am sure the doctor would work faster without you hovering behind him all the time."

That did it for the young agent. He nodded his head and followed Xander out of the room. As soon as the doors were closed behind them, JD hugged Xander in a bone crashing embrace burying his face in the crock of his neck.

Xander was surprised by the fierce gesture but he returned it without hesitation. Right now his lover needed all the comfort he could get. JD began to cry quietly, his shoulders shaking with each sob.

Xanders hand was making small shooting circles on JDs back when the hacker calmed down enough to speak, "He can't die! Xander tell me he won't die"

"I can't promise you that," whispered Xander breaking the embrace and putting his hand on either side of JDs cheek and resting his forehead on the hackers, "We are doing all that we can to help him."

Then he bend his head and kissed his right eye before proceeding to the left one, following the trail of tears with butterfly kisses he finally reach the mouth, showering it with light kisses before timidly asking for entrance with his tongue.

JD responded to the kiss with the desperation of a drowning man. He pushed Xander against the corridor wall and assaulted his mouth like it was the only source of oxygen left on the planet.

Xander recognized the kiss for what it was, a desperate attempt to make the pain go away, to forget the bad things and just get lost in the sensations. He allowed the attack to go on a little longer then he slowed the kissing down until he gave JD a final peck on the bruised lips and slowly pushed him away.

"You'll be okay now?" he asked.

JD just nodded and took a step back to give Xander a little more space then turned around and leaned on the wall next to him, gently brushing his shoulder against Xanders.

With the high flying emotions the two didn't notice the lone figure hovering down the corridor observing the scene with interest. Well, thought Josiah, at least this explained that.

Suppressing his own need to go there and ask about Buck condition, he waited a couple more minutes, than approached the duo just as the doctor came out of the room.

"How is he?" Xander asked the doctor, taking the lead of the conversation. Josiah lifted his eyebrow, but otherwise stayed silent.

"I am afraid that the patient slipped back into a coma. For now his stats are good, he still breaths on his own."

"But?" prompted Xander.

The doctor looked at the tree man gathered around him and sighed, "But the situation is worsening with alarming speed. If all goes well he has another day before his body gives up."

JD sobbed again and Josiah put a calming hand to his neck.

"And if everything doesn't go well?" asked Xander with trepidation in his voice.

"A couple more hours," said the doctor. "Now if you will excuse me I have to take some more tests."

"Mr. Sanchez maybe you should call the others," said Xander quietly.

The other man nodded and left the two alone to make the call to Chris that his best friend was out of time. At that moment he would have rather go against a mountain lion with his bare hands.

"Hold on, nothing is lost yet," Xander comforted JD, engulfing him in a warm hug, while JD lost himself again in his grief. The two of them stayed embraced like that for a little longer until the moment was broken by the cheery music of the song 'I kissed a girl'.

Xander districated himself from the embrace and excused himself while he went to answer the phone, leaving JD alone, hugging himself in search of comfort.

"I really hope that you have good news Willow because things got from bad to worse."

'Is JDs friend…'

"No, he is still alive, but he slipped back into a coma and this time the poison is progressing at high speed."

'There is still no news on the antidote, but from the info you gave me we managed to reduce the list of suspect to two. A Salsaus and a Sagostings. They both fit the bill quite nicely.'

"I still have the pictures and the sample that I got from the crime scene."

'Unfortunately that wouldn't help in this situation.'

"So we go after the both of them," stated Xander.

'I don't think that will be necessary. While a Salsaus meets all the requirements to be our winner the Sagostings bares a very close resemblance to the demon Robin was researching.'

"You think that Robin made a mistake in the identification and when he met a vicious killer instead of a peaceful happy go round demon, he was unprepared for the fight? Damn it!" cursed Xander. "He was a senior Watcher, he should have known better!"

'This is not the time to get angry.'

"On the contrary this is the right moment to get angry. What do you have on the cure?"

'There was a note in one of the library texts. It says that for curing the deadly sleep, I assume that, that means the coma, one must feed on the flesh of the beast.'

"Why couldn't anything be easy?" sighed Xander. "So what do you have on the creature?"

'It likes damp, cold and dark places, big surprise there. It is a solitary creature, so it will most likely be alone. The easiest way to kill him is with silver bullets since he is allergic to silver, but your normal run of the mill decapitation will do if you are in a pinch.'

"This doesn't help us much in locating him. Do you have anything else?" Xander groaned.

'No, not really, apart from the fact that he likes to eat iron there is nothing else here, sorry Xan.'

At the mention of iron a little bell rung in his ear. He couldn't put a finger on it, but it somehow seemed important. Closing his eyes and concentrating he went through his day step by step until he found himself on the roof of the building looking at his surroundings. There was something there, something connected to iron….

Then he smacked his forehead with the hand. Of course! There was an old factory close by that used to work with iron.

'Xander? Xander, are you still there?'

"Yeah Wills, I just remembered something. Look I have to go."

'Xander, wait!' she screamed, but it was too late.

Willow closed the phone with more force than it was necessary, cursing pig headed idiots that don't follow their own rules. Like the one about not going in an unknown situation unarmed and alone. The same mistake that got Robin killed.

"Problems?" asked Kennedy.

"Yeah of the Xande type," sighed Willow once she calmed down.

"We going to find him?"

"Just as soon as I can locate him," said Willow. "I will need a map of the city and some sand."

Back at the hospital Josiah just returned from his phone call to find JD alone, with Xander nowhere to be seen.

"Where is Xander?" he asked the hacker.

JD looked around a little lost, like he didn't notice the other departure, which he probably didn't.

"He received a phone call, must have left then," murmured JD, returning his focus on the room door like it held all the answers.

Josiah nodded, frowning slightly. JD was to preoccupied to notice anything outside of Bucks condition, but he wasn't. He knew that Xander wouldn't leave the young man alone, not now.

Something was moving in the investigation and he had a really bad feeling about it. He just hoped that Xander was cautious enough and took the appropriate precautions. He really didn't think that JD could survive the death of his best friend slash brother and the loose of his lover.

TBC…..

Done. Finally! It shouldn't be much longer now. One more chapter to go, two at the most. Stay tuned for the grand finale.

alea iacta est The die has been cast


	9. Clash of the titans part 4

**CLASH OF THE TITANS 4**

Author: Dampyria

Fandom: M7 / BtVS crossover

Summary: Buck gets hurt trying to help someone from the Watchers. (part 4)

Rating: PG13

Paring: JD/Xander (slash)

Spoilers: BtVS (Post season 7 – Pre Comics season 8), M7 (ATF universe)

Disclaimer**: **I do not own Magnificent Seven or Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Xander's mind was racing. He got all the necessary information about the demon and he had a hunch about its location. All he needed now was a weapon that would take care of said demon. And he knew just the place where to get one.

Finding a taxi in front of the hospital wasn't that difficult, finding one that would take him to Purgatorio was another matter all together. Finally he reached a compromise with one of the cabbies for a ride to the outskirts of town in exchange for a double fee.

He really didn't understand what the big deal was. It wasn't the best part of the town and it had a larger than normal population of the demon variety but most of them were pacifist. They just wanted to be left alone.

Maybe people just sensed that there was something different about the place. Anyway it wasn't any of his busyness and he really didn't have the time to entertain himself with these kinds of philosophical questions. When all this mess was over, he could always pitch the problem to Willow.

Hurrying down the street he disappeared in one of the nondescript buildings. Behind the counter he spotted his old friend Morg that upon seeing Xander paled considerably.

"No!" he said even before Xander had the chance of opening his mouth.

"But…" he tried again, but was shot down with the same force, "No way in hell!"

"Morg…"

"Last time I went out with you I ended up throwing up on my darling new shoes, the time before I spilled my guts on her couch – and I am talking actual guts here, not the figurate kind."

"Look…"

"The wife said that if she catches a whim of you around here she would hack you to pieces and slowly eat you."

"She eating humans again?" asked Xander with a dangerous gleam in his eyes.

"What? No!! She was just saying that she would be willing to forgo centuries of abstinence if she catches you near me. She was really sweet, all jealous and worked up. Man best sex we had in decades. What am I saying? Last time we went all out, if I remember correctly, was in 1894 when…"

"Whoa, whoa, TMI! I really don't want to know all the details. And jealous? No, forget it I even asked. I am not here for this. I need weapons."

"Why didn't you say something sooner? Gun, knife, sword or blunt object?"

Xander glared at him for a moment but than decided to let it go, "Gun with silver bullets and a sword."

"You are not going after werewolves are you, because that wouldn't be cool man. I have a cousin that is a werewolf."

"Don't worry your cousin is safe. Say have you heard something about a Watcher being killed?" inquired Xander.

"Oh you mean that incident in the alley? Yeah it's the talk of the week, everybody has something to say about it."

"And what are they saying?"

"It wasn't a local that did your friend in. They say that it came from west and that it has been keeping to himself. Real scary dude, I never met him mind you, but the ones that have said that it's better to keep our distance from him."

"A very good suggestion. Do you have any idea where he hides out?"

"Nobody knows for sure, but he has been seen around the place where your friend was killed, so he shouldn't be staying far from there," said Morg leading Xander in the back room where his stash of weapons was hidden.

Pressing a button on the wall and typing a code in the panel the entire section of the wall slid to the side to reveal every weapons lover wet dream. "So what's your poison?"

"What about this one?" asked Xander picking up a revolver and weighting it in his hand.

"Nice choice. It's light, well balanced, precise and powerful. What's more the ammunition comes in different flavours, including silver."

"Then I will take it, together with this sword," decided Xander pulling a beautiful antique samurai sword from the hinges.

"You have a very good eye for weapons. That is an original 9 century sword that belonged to a very famous demon hunter that doubled over as an omnyouji. A very powerful but just man."

"In this case I hope to meet its standards. How much for the lot? Oh and I will need to borrow a car as well."

"For you my friend a special price – only 15.500 USD. And I will throw the car rental in for free. What do you say?"

In his youth Xander would have never imagined spending such a large amount of money, hell he never even imagined having this kind of money. As it was he didn't even blink at the price because he knew that a good weapon could mean the difference between life and death in a battle. Besides, it wasn't like the Council was hurting for money. "Wrap it up and send the invoice to NWC."

"Aye, aye captain."

Xander stopped the car in front of the old, decaying building that was once a prosperous industry. The place was a maze and for the first time since he decided to check this place out by himself, Xander felt uncertain.

He didn't have a map of the place nor he knew how extensive the ruins were. Nervously he taped his fingers against the steering wheel, while trying to decide on the plan of action.

The decision was taken out of his hands when by the corners of his eye he saw something move in one of the windows. Throwing the planning to the winds, he jumped out of the car, grabbed the weapons and run in the direction of the movement.

Once inside he decided that maybe that wasn't such a great idea. He tried to maintain the general direction of where he saw the creature but quickly found himself lost. A small part of his brain begged him to stop this madness and turn around, but he silenced it with the single thought of the dead body of Robin Wood and of JDs dying friend.

Xander readied the gun and looked around for any sign of disturbance around him, something that would tell him that recently someone or something had moved past that point.

So intent was he on his observations that he failed to hear the sound of someone approaching him from behind. The first indication he got that something wasn't quite right was the warm breath on his neck. The next thing he knew he was flying through the air and then snugly hitting the wall on the opposite end of the room, loosing the gun in the process.

Ignoring the bells that were going off in his head he got up and seeing that the gun was too far for him to reach he drew out the sword and got into a defensive position.

The demon observing him burst out laughing, "Do you really think that you can take me with that puny little weapon of yours, mortal? I am a God, I am immortal."

Xander waited for a bit then blinked, "What? Don't you have an evil laugh to go at the end of that little speech of yours? I must say that I'm disappointed."

"How dare you!" hissed the creature.

"Me? How dare you coming here with your theatrical entrance and then you didn't even have the evil laugh, not even a chuckle."

"You are entertaining for a human. It will be a delight watching you die as you succumb to the poison that I already injected into your system. Slowly, so we will have time to talk some more before your demise."

"Yeah well, sorry to rain on your parade, but by the time your venom takes effect you will already be a head shorter," stated Xander taking his first steps toward the demon.

The Sagosting roared in delight and charged the human that dared to defy him. The battle was furious and bloody, mostly for Xander. He put everything that he had in the fight and only managed to keep the monster at bay.

But as the fight progressed Xander found himself more and more tired as the poison progressed in his system and rendered his limbs heavy and his reflexes slow. In minutes he was backed against a corner with no way out.

His only possibility of salvation was a direct attack, for which he was entirely too weak.

"Seems that we reached the end," smirked the demon. Xander just shot him a murderous look and then in a desperate attempt to collect his thoughts and gather enough strength to launch a final attack the Watcher closed his eye and tried to center himself.

Regulating his breathing, he slowly directed the last remains of his energy to his arms and legs while in his mind he visualized the last attack of this battle. He wasn't kidding himself, he knew damn well that that was going to be his last chance of getting out of there alive.

With the entire attack mapped in his arms and legs, he opened his eye and calmly watched the Sagosting make his move. As he expected, since his opponent was already half dead, the demon opted for a direct attack.

Xander waited until the demon was halfway through the room to make his move. He took a couple of steps forward and then raised his sword to block claws that were descending toward his head.

The demon, certain that the human was distracted by his first attack used the other arm to swing a punch to Xanders belly, which the Watcher sidestepped and with a spin that would make the Highlander proud, cut the monsters head off.

He calmly watched as the head detached itself from the body, hit the ground and slowly rolled on the dirty floor followed shortly by the thud of the body.

Raising the sword, he solemnly proclaimed: "There can be only one," before joining the headless corpse on the floor. Seconds before his consciousness left him he could swear that he felt the sword vibrating with mirth. He was quick to dismiss the sensation as a figment of his imagination, coupled with the effects of the poison.

For a couple of minutes the entire complex was surrounded by an eerie silence, broken only by the muffled sound of the outside world, until it was broken by a laud popping sound and a swirling green light.

At first it was scarcely noticeable then the cloud grew in intensity and size, quickly reaching human size and spitting out two figures before disappearing into thin air.

"Owww," let out a cry of pain one of the figures.

"Honey, you will have to train some more on that landing spell," complained the other.

"Yeah, yeah it's not like you are the one that always ends up with your face in the ground and your ass up in the air!" pouted Willow.

"But I love that position of yours," whispered Kennedy. "It gives me certain ideas…"

"Xander!" shouted Willow and run to the immobile form of his friend, checking for pulse and at the same time taking the inventory of his injuries.

"Not one of the ideas that is normally associated with Willow and sex," murmured Kennedy, approaching the two figures on the floor.

"Not the time and place to get jealous, Kennedy. He needs to get to a hospital. Pronto!"

"He doesn't seem bad. The wounds are not too serious," protested the other.

"Maybe not the wounds, but he has been infected with the same poison than is killing the ATF agent. Luckily he was able to procure the antidote before he passed out," commented Willow proudly. "All we have to do now is cook up a little skin with the right herbs and voila! The cure is here!"

Rummaging through Xanders pants Willow drew out the car keys and threw them to Kennedy. "Here, take this and drive him to the hospital. In the mean time I will transport myself to the lab and synthesize the antidote. It shouldn't take more then an hour."

"Why can't you transport him there and then we can leave for the lab?" whined Kennedy.

"We will be wasting time. I have to start on this as soon as possible and beside, transportation takes a lot out of me," Willow whispered while she seductively walked up to the Slayer, planting a hungry kiss on her lips. "and I want to be in my best form when I meet you latter in the hospitals broom closet, to give my good girl the reward that she deserves," she whispered in her ear, before biting it savagely and licking her neck from the ear to shoulder.

Willow looked at her lover and happy to see that her message has been received she sauntered toward the corpse of the demon and went to work, cutting of a generous amount of skin before disappearing into thin air.

Kennedy still a little shaken by the promise of a sexual encounter stood there with a dopey expression on her face, before a laud noise from the outside broke into her fantasy world and force her to concentrate on the task at hand.

After retreating the gun and the sword from the ground she took Xander into her arms and started walking toward the exit all the while murmuring to herself about the things that she did for love.

At the hospital the entire team seven was gathered once again in Bucks room to get the updates on the case and to check up on their friend. His health was failing at an exponential rate and the doctors had even suggested to call a priest.

"Damn it all to hell!" cursed Chris when he couldn't take the silence anymore. "How is it possible that we are unable to find any clues whatsoever about this case?"

"I wouldn't say that there are no clues Mr. Larabee, it is just that the clues are rendered inaccessible to us, either by the military or by the NWC," Ezra ventured to say.

"Yes and speaking of NWC, where the hell is your friend now, JD? If he is here to help us with the case where did he disappear to?"

"He left after receiving a phone call," said JD quietly, earning himself one of the famous Larabee glares.

"What he left without a reason and he didn't even tell you where he was going? Big help with the case he is! He just obstructed our investigation and his promises to help? All bullshit! If Buck dies because you didn't put your every effort in this investigation because of your friendship I will…"

"Chris!" yelled Joshua.

In the process of his tirade JD hugged himself closer and tried to disappear in his chair, while fresh tears threatened to spill from his eyes. He was a picture of misery.

When Chris' rant was stopped by Josiah warning yell, he really looked at JD for the first time since he entered the room.

Upon the younger agent dejected stance he paused and run a hand through his hair. "Shit, I need a coffee." And with that he bolted out of the room.

Josiah was about to follow him out of the room, when Ezra stepped in his path and shook his head, nodding toward JD. Josiah contemplated the undercover agent for a while than nodded and returned to his seat next to JD while Ezra followed their intrepid leader out of the door.

The corridor outside was empty but Ezra didn't panic, he knew exactly where Mr. Larabee has gone. He wasn't an excellent poker player for nothing, he knew people and more importantly he knew his team.

Taking the elevator he descended to the lobby of the hospital and turned toward the nearest coffee machine. Inserting some coins in the automated machine he opted for a warm tea instead of the usual coffee and then sat on the bench where Chris was already sipping from a cup.

"I lost my temper in there. I shouldn't have taken my frustrations out of JD. If Josiah hadn't stopped me…."

"You would have dealt young Mr. Dunne a hard blow from which he would need a long time to recover," Ezra finished his sentence.

"It's just that from the beginning of this investigation he hasn't put all that he has in this. Just because his friend…"

"Let me tell you a story, Mr. Larabee."

"I really don't think that this is the time to tell stories."

"On the contrary, this is the perfect time. You see a long time ago there was this young undercover agent that worked a big case involving prostitution, drugs and weapons. As you would say, the whole enchilada."

Chris stared at his colleague. It wasn't like Ezra to share his personal or professional life easily, so when the secretive agent spoke he knew that the message was gonna be important.

"The investigation was proceeding in the most satisfying manner. I was collecting evidence and information's that would result in a lot of unsavory people spending the best part of their lives behind the bars.

That is until I met Jasmine. She was the most beautiful, intelligent and delicious person to be around. Unfortunately she was also the daughter of one of the man I was investigating.

The reason was telling me that nothing good could possibly come out of our eventual relationship but the heart was not listening and as in case of young people the heart won over reason.

The two of us started seeing each other rather seriously and I unintentionally let the investigation slip, putting the relationship first. I was well aware that the moment I unveiled the fact that I am an agent of the law our love would be doomed.

One day my superiors deemed that the evidence collected was enough for an arrest and wanted to pull me out. The notice hit me like lightening from a clear sky. They wanted me out that same day, but I didn't want to leave Jasmine without saying good bye. So I invented a phantom drug operation that should take place in a couple of days. At the end of things, what are a couple of days more?

As it turned out it could mean the difference between life and death. In the time that I spent with my beautiful Jasmine a rival band assaulted Jasmines house and killed everyone in it, including her father. It was a hostile take over that wouldn't happen if I closed the undercover job when it was suggested. A mistake which I dearly regret to this day."

"Ezra I won't say that you made the right choice. But it was a rookie mistake, everyone makes them in the beginning of their carriers. It's because of that, that I don't want JD to have to regret his actions in the future."

"Mr. Larabee I didn't tell you this story to serve as an excuse for JD. I told you this story so that you would understand that I know what that young man is going through and more importantly that I know Mr. Dunne.

I spent a lot of time with him this day and I can say with certainty that he did everything in his power to find a clue on what is going on.

He didn't let the friendship between him and Mr. Harris get into his way, on the contrary, because of it he was even more determinate to find out the truth.

Effort that was tearing him apart, but he persisted in his search. I must say that he surprised me, Mr. Dunne is far more mature and dedicated to his work that I was at his age."

The two man remained sitting on the bench, sipping their drink in silence for the next tem minutes until Chris crashed his cup and threw it into a near trash can.

"It seems that I have some apologies to deliver." he stated and started to walk away, only to stop a couple a paces later. "If you don't mind me asking, how did your story end with Jasmine?"

Ezra smiled sadly. "As you can imagine it didn't end well, my friend. After learning of her fathers death she turned to me for support, but I wasn't there anymore. I stood with the enemies.

She couldn't bear the burden of not only loosing her father but of my betrayal as well. Shortly after the fact she fell into depression and tried to kill herself. The doctor that had her in his care decided to commit her to a psychiatric clinic. She is still there."

"I am sorry Ezra," whispered Chris patting the other man on the back.

Ezra curtly nodded. "It was a long time ago, Mr. Larabee."

Chris was about to say something else, when the entrance door opened with a bang admitting a short and fragile looking girl carrying an unconscious man in her arms.

The two man just stood there for a while stunned by the fact that such petite girl could carry a grown man, than they recognized the man and begun moving toward the strange pair.

"What the hell happened?" barked Chris, just as the nurses took over the unmoving body.

"Who the hell are you?" asked the annoyed girl.

"I am Chris Larabee, the leader of ATF team seven," he said drawing the ID from his pocket. "And I want to know who are you and what the hell happened to that man!"

The girl regarded him coldly then deciding that the fastest way to get rid of him was to tell him something she said. "My name is Kennedy and I work with Xander. As to what happened our Xander decided to play hero and went after the perp alone. He found him in an abandoned factory and took him on."

"Then what happened?"

"Isn't it obvious? They fought and even if Xander won in the end he sustained severe injuries and was poisoned by the same stuff that killed Robin and put your agent in a coma. Luckily for him we found him in time. While I drove him to the hospital, Willow is working with the antidote. She should be here in an hour, in time to save them both."

It was like an enormous weight lifted the men shoulders. They stood taller and the veil of despair that clung to their faces lifted like magic.

"Are you sure? You found the cure?"

"Xander found it but yeah we have the antidote," sighed Kennedy.

"I'm sorry, but you don't seem very pleased with him. Can I inquire why is that?"

"Would you be if one of your colleagues disregarded his safety and the success of the mission to play the lone wolf and go in alone, without back-up? If we didn't get there in time all the hard work would have been in vein. Oh, he got the killer, but the killer got him back. When we found him he was passed out cold with the antidote right beside him."

"I see. I must say we have been extremely lucky that you found him so quickly," commented Ezra.

"That's not the point. It doesn't matter anyway. Can you make sure that they put him in the same room as your friend after they patch him up? It will be simpler to administer the cure this way."

"Of course," agreed Chris.

"Good. Cause I have to find a private broom closet before Wills gets here," and after saying that she disappeared toward one of the stairway exits.

Ezra looked at Chris, uncertain. "Did she just say what I think she said?" he inquired wide eyed.

"I believe she did," said Chris still a little shocked by the turn of events. "Ezra, why don't you go and give the others the good news? In the mean time I will arrange for the young Xander to be brought to the right room?"

"With pleasure."

"Oh, one more thing. Don't tell JD about Xanders condition just yet."

"If you are sure."

Chris nodded and then left in the direction in which they transported Xander. When he walked into the examination room he wasn't surprised to find the doctor ordering a full battery of tests.

"That won't be necessary," he said to the doctor.

"So you know what happened to this young man?" asked the doctor.

"He was poisoned by the same substance that put the ATF agent Buck Wilmington into a coma. You can't do anything for him at the moment, just clean up his wounds and then transfer him in the same room as Buck Wilmington."

"And just who the hell do you think you are to give orders around here?"

A nurse near by put a calming hand on the doctors arm and smiled at him. "We will do as you say. As soon as his wounds are tended to I will make sure that he ends up in the right room, Mr. Larabee."

"Good. I will wait there."

As soon as he left the room all hell broke loose but he didn't care. He had to rejoin his friend and wait for the miracle cure.

The hospital room was positively buzzing with excitement as Chris entered.

"Chris is it true?" wanted to know JD. "Is it true that they found the cure? That Buck will get better?"

"Yes they said that they found the cure in the possession of the attacker. It should be here shortly."

"Have they said what are the basis for this antidote? How it works on the poison?" was curious Nathan.

"Did they mention why the perpetrator did it?" came from Josiah.

"Guy let Chris breath. I am sure that we will get all the answers in due time," Vin tried to calm them down.

"For now this is all I know and I suspect that this is all we will find out before they classify this case as top secret."

"You are awfully agreeable about this Chris," commented Nathan. "Normally, by now, you would be on the phone, demanding answers."

"I was in the army. I know what means need to know basis and as long as Buck gets back on his feet I won't ask questions."

"That's very unlike you… Oh my God! Xander!" cried out JD as he saw a nurse push a bed into the room, with an unmoving Watcher in it. "What happened to him?"

"He was poisoned by the same substance that put Buck in the coma."

"But how? When? Where?" wanted to know the once again frantic JD.

"I am afraid that this is classified," said a new feminine voice.

As one the men in the room turned around to stare at her than their gaze fall down to the little metallic box that she was holding in her hand.

"Is that…?"

"… the cure? Yes. We just finished preparing the mixture." She said then walked to the bed where Buck was lying and carefully rolled up his sleeve before opening the box. Disinfecting the arm she lifted one of the syringes lying there and gently pushed the needle into the pale skin.

Standing up she moved to the other bed and repeated the same action with Xander.

"Now all we can do is wait," she sighed and lovingly combed Xanders hair with her hand. "It should be a couple of hours before they wake up."

Leaning forward she planted a gentle kiss on his Xander shaped friends forehead and then stood up. "Now if you will excuse me I have a promise to keep."

And just like that she left the room leaving behind four very confused men and other two with slightly colored cheeks.

TBC … In the last part of the story - The epilogue. Where the Scooby gang visits their recovering friend and Xander gets yelled at. Faith finds out the truth and Riley Finn makes a cameo appearance.

Stay tuned!


	10. Epilogue

**EPILOGUE**

Author: Dampyria

Fandom: M7 / BtVS crossover

Summary: Buck gets hurt trying to help someone from the Watchers.

Rating: PG13

Paring: JD/Xander (slash)

Spoilers: BtVS (Post season 7 – Pre Comics season 8), M7 (ATF universe)

Disclaimer**: **I do not own Magnificent Seven or Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I would like to thank all the people that left me feedback and gave me that extra push to write faster. Without you this story wouldn't have been finished this quickly, so thank you Kohanita, LdyGossamer, Lady FoxFire and of course Sfulton229.

Xander slowly woke up to a world of pain. His head was being assaulted by a platoon of tanks while someone had poured pure acid into his stomach, than a third party made sure that he couldn't move or talk by injecting him with a paralyzing thingy.

As his senses gradually returned he become aware of more and more things, like the fact that he wasn't lying on a concrete floor of an abandoned fabric anymore or that he couldn't hear the traffic in the distance.

He tried to move his head experimentally and got a warning twinge of nausea as a result. After a few minutes wait he felt brave enough to try and open his eye. Big mistake!

As soon as the sun rays hit his retina the nausea returned full force and this time there was no stopping it. He had only enough time to turn sideways before his lunch escaped from the same route that it came in.

Luckily someone must have sensed his distress because the moment he bent over, a container magically appeared in front of him and a gentle hand stroked his head as he emptied his stomach.

When he was sure that there was nothing left Xander set on the bed gratefully accepting the bottle of water that JD was offering him. "Thanks," he whispered not trusting his vocal cords to do their job. He rinsed his mouth and than took a couple gulps of water.

"How are you feeling?" asked JD, sitting on the edge of the bed and taking Xanders hand in his, holding it gently.

"Like we have been parting the entire night and drank a whole box of whiskey bottles, but I will live. How is Buck doing?"

"He is still in a coma, but his vital signs are good. He improved a lot in the last couple of days. They just say that because the poison was in his system longer it will take the antidote more time to kick in."

"Good…. Wait a minute! Did you just say days?"

"Yes, to be precise four days and nine hours."

"Well shit. How is Willow holding up? I'm surprised that she isn't here guarding me."

"They decided to take turns."

"They?" asked Xander dreading the answer.

"Yes they. Meaning Willow, Dawn, an alder English gentleman named Giles and Faith. Kennedy left soon after she brought you here."

"Faith? She knows the truth?" panicked Xander. JD looked at him strangely than nodded slowly.

"And I am still alive and in one piece?" wanted to know Xander running his hands over his body just to make sure. JD caught the wandering hands in an attempt to calm him down.

"At first even I thought that she was going to hack you into little pieces and threw you away but as the time went by the others were able to make her see the light. Now she only wants to make sure you are okay so she can yell at you," whispered JD bending down, his concentration focused on the pale lips in front of him.

"You don't know her. Faith isn't one to scream and rant, she acts. I don't believe that out reunion is going to be painless. Especially for me. She is going to hit me, you just watch! Uhmm JD? … JD? "

Through out the complaining JD watched the pale lips move and was suddenly overwhelmed by the desire to return a little color to that mouth.

His mouth traveled the remaining distance and as soon as it was in attacking range it struck out and engaged the other mouth in a fierce battle of lips, tongue and teeth. Pretty soon the kiss wasn't enough anymore and JD carefully, mindful of Xanders injuries, climbed on the bed and straddled Xanders hips.

Pretty soon only kissing wasn't enough and Xanders hands traveled to JD's bottom, grabbing it roughly and desperately pushed him toward his groin. At the intimate contact the two groaned and pushed their efforts to get closer into a higher gear.

That is, until a squeaky "Oh my Goddess!" coming from the door stopped them and compelled them to turn around and see a very exited looking teenage girl and a shocked Chris standing beside her.

There was a minute of stillness in the room then Dawn brought out her phone and snapped a picture of the bed. This action seemed to be some kind of signal for the others to wake up, because right after that, JD jumped out of the bed and Xander quickly adjusted the sheet on the bed to hide a very prominent bulge in his pants.

Dawn, in the meantime, was furiously typing on her phone, with an evil gleam in her eyes.

"Dawn what are you doing?" worriedly asked Xander. The girl didn't answer, just smirked at him. "Dawn put that phone down." No reaction.

"Dawn this is your last warning. Put that phone down."

The girl looked up from her cell, threw him a wicked look and typed the last key on the infernal machine before putting it back in her pocket. "As you wish."

"What did you just do? And please, please don't tell me that you posted the picture on the Council forum," sighed Xander massaging his temples.

"Okay I won't tell you that," come the smug reply.

"Dawn!"

"What? I did you a favor you know? The others were getting worried about you. Since Anya's death you have been all work and work and work. It's not healthy. The girls even started a whole project where they evaluated possible candidates and than threw them at you."

"What are you talking about?"

"Remember Helena, Barbara, Sonya and Kaori? They all passed the final selection to be your new girlfriend. Well not really girlfriend since the project was named 'Find Xander a new orgasm friend'," she giggled while the other in the room blushed.

While the two IWC employees were talking shop the ATF agents were staring at each other. Chris was trying to ascertain how strong the connection between the two man was and if that could damage the young hackers loyalties to the team, while at the same time he tried to reconcile what he knew about his subordinate with this new information's.

JD's mind, on the other hand, was miles away from thoughts of team loyalties and strength of his relationship. The only thought that was resonating inside his skull was Chris reaction, his approval or his disgust.

He had been on this train more then once, with his college friends and even his relatives. Their hate and disgust had hurt him and made him feel dirty and alone but with the help of a few chosen people, he survived it and thanks to it become stronger.

But now, standing in front of Chris, the sole thought that this man that he respected and admired, might reject him made him feel desperate. Chris face was empty of any emotion that JD could read. There was no way of telling what the man was thinking.

Finally, after what seemed hours to JD and after Dawns last comment, Chris smirked. "You just wait till I tell this to Buck. All the effort and time that he put in setting you up with beautiful girls that he would have dated otherwise…"

JD let go of the breath he wasn't aware he was holding and smiled at his boss. Everything is going to be all right.

"What beautiful girls? What are you people talking about?" groaned Buck from his bed.

"Buck!" shouted JD, running toward the other bed in the room, closely followed by Chris.

"How are you feeling?"

"Like, I was hit by a fucking train. What the hell happened? Obviously I am not dead yet, otherwise Hell is a lot stranger that I have ever imagined it."

"You are okay, Xander found the antidote."

"Xander? You mean the other patient in the room whose hands were all over you just a couple of minutes ago? That Xander?"

"Hey I can hear you, you know?" protested Xander, while his face was turning into a lovely shade of red.

"Hey if it's true it's true. And JD, don't think I forgot all that lovely ladies that I passed up because I thought that you were interested in the gentler sex."

JD paled as all kinds of different retributions, for having kept Buck away from the ladies, shot through his mind. He was so dead!

"But I liked some of them. I really did," he tried to dig himself out of a hole only to fall into a bigger one.

"You did, didn't you?" came the irritated voice from the other end of the room.

"Yes, no… I mean… Xander why are you doing this to me?" whined JD.

"Cause I like watching you squirm. You do it so nicely," grinned Xander, making JD blush like a high school student and squirm some more.

The other occupants of the room smiled at the by play and it looked like another argument was about to broke up when Chris took the central stage and announced that it was late and that the patients needed time to sleep and recover their forces.

Dawn gave Xander a quick peck on the cheek and left the room without complaining, soon followed by JD. Chris remained in the room a little longer, studding the two patients with a stern look of a general, making the two feel like naughty school boys.

"Behave!" he barked out and left the room, before the smile that was building up inside of him had time to escape it's prison and brake free to his face.

Xander wondered what all that was about when Buck asked him in a very innocent and disinterested voice. "So you are dating my roommate?"

The Watcher froze on his bed. 'He was so dead!' he thought, unknowingly mirroring his lover's earlier thought.

The night came and went with neither Buck nor Xander getting any sleep. The more that the two talked, the more they found to have in common. Without them noticing the time passed and soon it was noon and time for visits.

The two were just joking about hospital food when the door burst open to let in a very beautiful and furious looking young woman.

"Well hello pretty lady…" started saying Buck but was completely ignored in favor of his temporally roommate.

The beauty marched toward Xanders bed and without pausing slapped him with full force, making Buck wince in sympathy. He had received his fair share of slaps in his life, but none of them sounded this painful.

"Shit Faith, let me explain…"

"Explain what? That you kept the fact that my boyfriend was savagely murdered hidden from me and that you made the others lie about it too?"

"Now wait a minute…"

"Who the hell do you think you are? I had the right to…."

"The right to what?!" shouted Xander and than continued before she had the time to interrupt him again. "The right to take revenge with your own hands? The right to risk your unborn daughters' life?"

"I would never…"

"Yes you would. You just found out that you were expecting, your hormones were flying high and you were very emotional. If you would have heard about Robins death then you would fling yourself on the first plane and not minding your condition tracked down the suspect and confronted him, with no regard to your safety."

"Unlike you?" she sneered at him. "Some fighter you are."

"I may not be the best fighter on the block but I'm not responsible for another innocent being. If I died I wouldn't drag with me an unborn baby!"

Faith stiffened like she was being slapped. Her eyes begun to gleam with tears and before she could break down in front of everyone she turned around and stormed out of the room, pushing past the ATF team and the Watchers that gathered there after her arrival.

Willow was about to go after her but Xander stopped her. "Don't go after her just yet, she wants to be alone for a while. Wait a couple of minutes so she can put herself back together and then go."

Willow seemed uncertain for a while but then nodded and stepped closer to Xander's bed.

"Are you okay?" asked a concerned JD.

"I'm fine," replied Xander. "She will come around in a couple of weeks … or months. Actually that went much better than I anticipated. No broken bones or new bruises. By the way G-man, I saw that you didn't deny it when she said that the whole thing was my idea," he addressed the older man.

"Survival instinct my boy, survival instinct," sighed Giles. "Speaking of which…"

"Oh no…" whispered Xander. "This is going to get much worse than I anticipated."

Giles took his glasses and started cleaning them. "Really Xander what were you thinking? Why did you go in a potentially dangerous situation alone, and without back-up?"

"It was a long shot and we were running out of time," he tried to justify himself.

"Really?" asked Giles discreetly sliding the sword out of his coat. "And you couldn't tell Willow about it, seeing as she was on the other hand of a telephone at the time that you got this brilliant idea?"

"I had to make stop somewhere along the way and besides I knew that Willow was doing her location thingy as soon as I got of the phone."

"I see. This place where you had to stop … wouldn't that be that Morg fellow house?" inquired Giles making Xander go whiter.

"How did you… Look Giles I know that you don't trust his kind, but he is one of the good guys. You didn't …"

"A nice person that Morg," mused Giles. "He was considerate enough to come here to retrieve the car he rented to you. No additional charges as I understood."

"Yeah.." said Xander not really sure anymore if he was being praised or reprimanded.

Sighing Giles put his glasses back where they belonged and turned to Xander. "This time you were lucky, but the next time things may very well not go your way. You have to think before you act, dear boy. If you would have died, there would be a lot of people mourning your passing, a lot more that you might think.

In the time since you started working for the Council a lot of people came to rely on you. The girls, the younger Watchers that identify with you, even I would feel your loose in my professional and personal life."

"I … I don't know what to say," murmured Xander.

"A thank you would suffice. I am afraid that not always we treat you as an equivalent part of our extended family, nor we acknowledge the important part that you play in the group."

"Thank you, Giles. But I have to tell you that given the same situation with the same resources I would have made the same choices that I did today."

"Yes and I understand your position. That is why, before we left Scotland, I put forth the suggestion that you be given a team and a house in a city of your choice. The suggestion was accepted with a unanimous vote."

"What?" squeaked Xander.

"After you get better and take a month long vacation you will be given a team all yours."

"What?"

"Xander do close your mouth, or I might change my mind. Now I suggest you get better and enjoy your vacation to the fullest, because when you get back there will be a mountain of paperwork to fill out."

"Damn! I knew there was going to be a catch," protested the new team leader.

"And he is back," smirked Willow.

"Well with that out of the way I am afraid that I have to leave. My plane leaves in an hour and I don't want to be late. There is a flight attendant that gets downright scary if I am not on time."

Xander caught JD's eyes and then both of them bust out laughing. The other members in the room watched them confused, not really sure what was going on, which prompt the laughing fit to a whole new level.

"Ow, ow stop, stop. It hurts," Xander whizzed in a pause, before starting again.

"We are doomed," sighed Giles, leaving the room.

"I better go check on Faith now. She should feel better now," Willow excused herself.

As soon as she left Dawn skipped to Xanders bed and sat on it. "Oh Xander, your photo is going great."

This effectively killed any laughter left in Xander and JD. "What?" they asked at the same time.

"The photo I posted on the Watchers forum last night? It got more then a hundred replies and it has been only twelve hours from the posting. I think that it got a real shot to win this year award as the post with most replies. I am so gonna win."

"I am happy to help you attain your goals, even at the price of my sanity," he said sarcastically.

"Oh and that's not all. They are already talking about collecting money for a gift. If you add all the offers there is almost two hundred pounds here. If this goes on they will buy out the entire stock at the local sex shop," she smirked as making the entire room blush.

"Dawn!" he cried out, not really scandalized. Dawn had spent way to much time with Anya. The girl had no shame.

"JD, I'm sure that you and Xander will have a whole lot of fun with it," she winked at him before leaving the room.

"Why would JD enjoy the sex toys with Xander?" asked a very confused Nathan. When nobody answered him he looked at the two beforehand mentioned man and suddenly a bulb went on in his head. "Oh!"

The attention was at once centered on the lovers in the room.

"Damn Dawn, she is so going to pay for this," wowed Xander before trying to disappear under the covers.

- THE END -

p.s. I know I promised that Riley will make a short appearance, but I just couldn't find a spot where to put him in. My most humble apologies for all Riley lovers.

Also, there are a couple of open questions that I left unanswered. (like the sword, how he knew that the baby is a girl and so on) These questions will be addressed in the sequel Dinner Meeting 2, that will concentrate on Xanders vacation.

Sadly right now I have some other projects that I am working on so it's gonna take some time. Stay tuned.


End file.
